The Unknown Captain Rewrite
by Vangran
Summary: When the war against Aizen ended, Gin's body disappeared. Rukongai was flourishing because any criminal was punished while perpetrating and so no one died. A 300-year-old legend makes his appearance once more as his spirit is returned to the world that had cast him aside. Alive!Gin. Select Character bashing. Harry/?. Irregular Updates
1. Beginning

**Chapter 1: Beginning**

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Harry Potter, if I did, Gin wouldn't have died and Dumbles would have a lot sooner than he did.

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The Unknown Captain: Beginning

There is a legend, among those dwelling in the Rukongai, about a man with the power of a Captain-level Shinigami, but lives among the commoners. He is unseen by all but yet known by all as well. None have seen his powers in action, but all know him to be real.

Not much is really known about him, beyond his supposed pact to protect those who can't protect themselves, and the many people who have vanished upon attempting to hurt an innocent. Who he is and what he looks like were widely speculated and even the Gotei 13 were hard-pressed to ignore the many reports coming out of that area.

There is currently only one who has seen him and he didn't even know how lucky he was as he was currently searching for a friend who was unjustly imprisoned. And even when seeing him he barely spared the man a second glance. This man was Ichigo Kurosaki and his destiny was greater than any could have realized.

But I am getting ahead of myself. By the time this young man met the mysterious Shinigami, events had already been set in motion that would drive him to heights unseen in centuries.

But let us return to the story, shall we?

It all began on a cool night's eve in the Shinigami Academy 350 years ago when a young Shinigami-in-training was told that he didn't have what it took to become a member of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. Years of frustration and never mastering a single Kido, not even obtaining his Zanpakuto, forced the hand of the instructors and so they had no choice but to release him of his studies and his practice-sword and return him to Rukongai.

Now the reason his Reiatsu wasn't sealed was because it wasn't deemed high enough to be a threat to anyone and because it was agreed that he would never be able to get it any higher anyway. Now, one can imagine the effect this had on the young soul, and so, after being stripped of his rank and weapon, walked quietly through the quiet streets of North Rukon with nothing left to him except his training.

This young man's name was Arius Pelagios, and his story, and the legend he would grow to be, had only just begun.

Arius trained many days and nights, trying to unlock his Zanpakuto, to no success. So, after sneaking back into the Seireitei, he took possession of a practice sword and proceeded to do just that: practice. Without a set curriculum and without instructors breathing down his neck, the former Shinigami-to-be flourished, and his skills with the blade only grew. It was only a mere ten years later that he unlocked his Zanpakuto, and while he didn't know its name, it meant that he didn't need the practice sword anymore, and so he returned it post-haste… or he would have if he didn't think that everyone at the academy were stuck-up bastards and so he gave it to a kid passing by. That kid turned out to be legend in the making, for while short in stature and white of hair, Toshiro Hitsugaya was a genius with skills unparalleled by any of his age.

And, of course, it wasn't long before someone saw Toshiro and noticed his skill with a blade and decided that he was worthy of joining the Academy, of which he later graduated and went on to become the Captain of the Tenth Division.

But this story isn't about him, and our hero has yet to make his mark. For while Toshiro Hitsugaya was a prodigy, he was nothing compared to the man who made it all possible. After unlocking his Zanpakuto, Arius trained day in and day out, sunrise to sunset, never taking a moment's rest except for a quick bite to eat. His own skill with the blade grew in leaps and bounds beyond that of Toshiro. The only reason he wasn't found was because he made sure to repress his Reiatsu, something he had learned very quickly so as to not be caught when sneaking into the Seireitei to get the practice blade all those years ago.

He practiced on the drunk Shinigami and the thugs that lived scattered throughout Rukongai. While drunk Soul Reapers weren't exactly a good test of his skills, they were better than the thugs, so he had to make do. It was only because of a slip-up on his part that Hisana no-name later Kuchiki and her sister Rukia were cornered by a small group of thugs that he had overlooked that Byakuya Kuchiki was able to save the day. But that is two centuries later.

By the time that Toshiro was promoted to Captain, the cast-out had learned the name of his Zanpakuto, and similarly learned what type of blade he was. The one reason that he has never unveiled his powers in public is that he didn't want to draw attention to himself, as his blade was a Water-element Zanpakuto, and thus caused quite a bit of damage. Kaien Shiba's Zanpakuto was quite different from his own, and far less destructive.

When Arius did reveal himself, he only appeared as a mysterious sword wielder wearing a weathered black and brown cloak that hid his face and a dark blue tunic and pants He is commonly referred to as the Hero of Rukongai as he is the only one with Zanpakuto that has deigned to help them. Shinigami only come to Rukongai for recruits and even that is far and few between, and the number chosen is abysmal. And taking care of Hollows was standard, so they expected that, but taking care of thugs and others who hurt for no good reason, well, let's just say they were under their radar.

And so the Legend of the Mysterious Stranger took hold. Yes, I know, the name is entirely unoriginal, but for them, it was enough, especially since they had absolutely no idea about who he was or what he looked like, or even what his Zanpakuto's power was.

By the time the Visored incident occurred, he had long since obtained Bankai and had even mastered a few Kido as well, although the number was very, very small. The man never backed down from a challenge, and while no one was stupid enough, or even knew how to find him in the first place, challenges weren't as rare as one might think. He constantly set new goals for himself- a level to reach, a Kido to learn, a sword technique to master- he was never too prideful to learn something new, for there was always something that you didn't know that someone else did, and that was a disadvantage he couldn't allow to exist

By the time that Aizen's War ended, Arius was the most accomplished swordsman in all the Seireitei, not that anyone besides himself knew that. He wasn't one to seek fame, he had always had a deep dislike for the thing and he had no intent to change that part of himself.

Of course, he played no part in ending Aizen's power play as he wasn't interested in getting involved with _another_ person set on immortality. He didn't want to be dragged into a war that wasn't his own and used and tossed aside when it was over. No, he wasn't going to let that happen.

The war had ended with the aid of a substitute soul reaper by the name of Ichigo Kurosaki. The teen Shinigami had managed to do what no one thought possible by beating Byakuya Kuchiki, captain of Squad 6 and rescuing Rukia Kuchiki from certain death. Even though he was he was thought to be out of his depth, he still managed to defeat the Arrancar that Aizen created and eventually Aizen himself. And when the war was coming to a close, Gin, a man who everyone thought was on Aizen's side, revealed that he was really working to kill his former superior, and nearly died for his efforts.

He would have died if not for the fact that Arius's Zanpakuto had a special ability that allowed it to absorb reiryoku as well as give it to others, thus allowing the traitor-turned-hero to heal himself on top of what Arius himself did, although everyone assumed he had died in Rangiku's arms and so no one searched for him, even though his body was no longer where he 'died'. With Gin at his side, he returned to the Rukon district and they worked together to free it of undesirables, a.k.a. crooks and thugs.

They were quite successful in their quest to make it a better place to live, and though no one knew who they were, everyone now knew that the Hero of Rukongai now had a partner, and neither were slouches when it came to combat.

Gin taught him several Kido, Bakudo, and Healing Kido to supplement his own and they both practiced their sword techniques on each other. Arius, now having a skilled sparring partner, only grew stronger, and that is where our story truly begins.

And so there he was, standing over a couple of thugs who had decided to mug an innocent woman with her child in her arms, his cloak blowing in the breeze. Gin had gone after a second group and so was unable to reach his comrade in time when it happened. It was a mild twitch at first, and then it grew to a tug, and by the time it grew to a yank he realized too late what it was: a soul summoning. Someone was calling the spirit of a dead human back to life, and he was the spirit.

His green eyes narrowed as he was pulled through the gateway that appeared behind him, dragging him back to the world of the living.

It was pitch-black for a moment and then as he drew steadily closer to the end, a light appeared, growing brighter and brighter until eventually he burst through and arrived at wherever he was being called.

His cloak, having flown off somewhere in the corridor, no longer hid his face, revealing the white scarf that he wore underneath the cloak that fluttered behind him in an unseen breeze. His Avada Kedavra- green eyes narrowed at the sight before him, and ran a hand through his now straight coal-black hair, revealing an old scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead.

"Hello Harry, it's been a while."

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Tell me what you think! This story is inspired by _When his world turns over_ by Juud. I highly recommend you read it. This story is similar but quite different as to where it goes. Thanks for reading! ^_^


	2. Soul Call

**Chapter 2: Soul Call**

Last time Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Harry Potter

Also, the story behind Harry going back in time will be explained

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The Unknown Captain: Soul Call

"Hello Harry, it's been a while," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling in the candlelight.

Arius scowled, "My name's not Harry, not anymore."

"Of course your name is Harry!" Said a shrill voice that carried an air of condescension, "That was what your parents named you and you have always answered to it, so of course it's your name!"

He turned his head slightly to face Molly Weasley, "I haven't answered to that name in over three-hundred years, so yes, I think I can safely say that it is no longer my name. So what do you want, Dumbledore? I have things to do that don't involve petty power plays and you are making it very difficult for me to do them by calling me here," he said in a cold voice unlike what they remembered of the slightly cheerful/ angsty teenager before his death in Hogsmeade.

"We need you to defeat Voldemort like the Prophecy says you will."

"If that is all you wanted to talk about then I will be leaving."

"Wait!"

The voice pierces through the noise and brings the Headmaster into silence.

The crowd parted to reveal a tear-faced Hermione Granger.

Arius turned cold eyes upon the bushy-haired teen, his eyes softened for a moment before resuming their usual harsh appearance.

"Granger." The one word sent her into another fit of tears as the other members of the Order frowned at him, upset at him for making her cry. His eyes swept over the magicals. "I have no desire to help you. Where were you when I needed help? Where were you when I was trapped at the Dursley's living in a cupboard? Where were you when I was forced to kill a basilisk? Where were you when I was attacked by Dementors? Where were you when I fought Voldemort in the Third Task? You have no right to call me, let alone use my birth name." He finished his rant with shaking limbs and a face filled with fury. He hadn't let loose like that since he was kicked out of the academy.

Order members were shocked at what they heard, _lived in a cupboard!_ were the words that stuck out in Remus' mind, as he had no idea that he had had such a horrible childhood. He knew it was bad because James had always gone home for Christmas and Harry was always the first to sign up to stay. He only wished he had caught it sooner.

Severus, on the other hand, scoffed, _He's probably just trying to get more attention, the little brat._

Ron was thinking similarly to Severus, still not quite over Harry being a better man than he was and having everything he wanted, _The bastard probably deserved it._

Hermione, however, had covered her mouth with her hand and a fresh wave of tears burst forth, so shocked and feeling such pity for her best friend.

Arius, sensing the emotions rolling off the Order members in waves, scowled, "I have no need for pity. I like my life the way it is now and have no interest in changing that. So I will just destroy this body and be on my way."

Dumbledore and the others watched with wide eyes as he created a red ball of energy in his hand after shouting, "Hado 31: Shakkaho!" and was about to fire it only for it to be stopped by the appearance of a second gate that appeared just before it.

Hermione and several others sighed in relief, although Remus watched with narrowed eyes as the gateway opened, revealing several people dressed in similar attire but quite different from Harry's clothes.

There was a bald guy, a feathered guy, a busty female, a red-head that pulled the color off better than any Weasley, a guy a with completely red hair, a girl with black hair and a kid with a serious expression and really white hair. All of them had swords tied to their waists although the orange-haired teen had his attached to his back along with the kid. Carrot-top wore a white coat over over his black haori, and so did the white-haired elementary student.

 _Must be some kind of club_ , Remus thought as he watched them step calmly through the portal, or at least they were until the bald guy noticed people staring at his head and guessed (correctly this time) what they were thinking about.

"Alright, who wants to die first?" he asked, beginning to draw his sword from its scabbard. It was at that moment that (some) people realized that Harry had a blade attached to his waist as well.

Of course, the Order took it the wrong way (is that even possible?) and pulled out their wands to attack them when the kid thrust his arm out and yanked the bald guy down to his level.

"We are here on a mission, idiot! I don't care if they thought you were lacking body hair you won't attack them unless they attack you first! Are we clear?" the kid said in a surprising strong voice as he shook the tall man roughly.

Bald Guy nodded his head fearfully. Now, what the Order members didn't realize was that the new arrivals were talking in Japanese, because there were translation spells active in the room.

It was at this moment that carrot-top patted the kid on the shoulder and motioned to the gaping group before them. Releasing the man's uniform, he cleared his throat and said, "Greetings, my name is Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya, and I am in charge of this group. We are Soul Reapers here to assist in the destruction of the man you know of as Voldemort. We would appreciate any information you have on the matter."

Dumbledore was quick to present himself before the Shinigami, trying to cement himself in their eyes as the leader of the resistance. "Hello, and welcome to the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. It is an honor to have those of the Soul Society aid us in our fight for peace."

Arius scoffed, drawing everyone's attention back to him, "Peace? Since when have you ever wanted peace? You were fully prepared to send an eleven-year-old off to fight a fully-trained wizard and had no problem sending me off to face dragons and immortal wizards. So don't you dare preach about how you're fighting for peace."

Of course, Toshiro noticed something that the others did not, and that was that not only was he not wearing the standard uniform for Shinigami, he also seemed extremely familiar in an aggravating sort of way.

"Have I seen you before?" he finally asked.

Arius smirked, which resulted in several witches and both female Shinigami's heartbeats to speed up. And, it seemed he wasn't going to answer his question directly as he said, "So how's that practice sword I gave you?"

Hitsugaya looked at him with confusion in his eyes until he figured it out and then his eyes widened dramatically. "It was you!"

Busty Female looked back and forth between her captain and the unknown swordsmen with question marks hovering over her head, "Captain, what do you mean? Do you know him?"

Hitsugaya turned to face her, his eyes in the same position, "Matsumoto, do you remember me telling you about the practice sword that a stranger gave to me shortly before I joined the Academy?" The now-named Matsumoto nodded her head, "Well, he was the one who gave it to me."

Her eyes widened, "You mean he's responsible for you joining the 13 Court Guard Squads!" (A/N: For the sake of my hands, I will simply write Gotei 13 from now on.)

Moody looked at the group, suspicion clouding his lone eye, "Why should we trust you? You came out of a magical doorway, you could be spies sent by Voldemort!"

Remus shook his head in exasperation, "Moody, if they were sent by Voldemort, they wouldn't be this obvious about it. Plus, the Soul Society doesn't tend to work with people who cheat death, so they're clean," he turned his head toward the Shinigami, "My apologies for my colleague, he is just being overly cautious."

Hitsugaya chuckled, "That's okay, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to introduce ourselves."

Matsumoto stepped forward and bowed, "Vice-captain Rangiku Matsumoto of Squad 10." Many of the males in the room didn't hear her name as their eyes were fixated on her bouncing cleavage.

The red-haired one stepped forward and bowed, "Vice-captain Renji Abarai of Squad 6." For some reason, Snape felt a kinship with him, but also wanted to hit him over the head. He puzzled over why he had such conflicting emotions.

Baldy stepped forward now, "Ikkaku Madarame, third seat of Squad 11." His bald spot glinted right at that moment, blinding Moody's magical eye, causing him to curse loudly and get smacked upside the head by Molly Weasley, who was silently cursing the man as well.

Feathers now, "Yumichika Ayasegawa, holder of the beautiful fifth seat of Squad 11." Now, many were wondering why he emphasized the word beautiful, but that wasn't the only thing, as many of them were wondering if he thought he was a girl, due to his overly feminine appearance. For some reason, Yumichika felt oddly flattered.

Now Carrot-top, "Ichigo Kurosaki, captain of Squad 3." Everyone in the Order felt on edge with him, and with his giant sword strapped to his back, it didn't lessen the feeling. In fact, Fred and George didn't feel the slightest inclination to tease him.

And finally, Black-haired girl, "Vice-captain Rukia Kuchiki of Squad 13." Now, while normally she would have garnered some appreciative looks, Ichigo was glaring fiercely at them, daring them to ogle her.

With that the Order promptly introduced themselves as well, albeit Moody did so reluctantly.

"Alright, now that that is out of the way I think I will be off."

Everyone stared at Arius as he promptly opened a portal back to the Seireitei. Of course, before he could go through it, someone else stepped through it, someone Rangiku thought she would never see again.

"Gin? Gin Ichimaru?"

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Tell me what you think! This story is inspired by _When his world turns over_ by Juud. I highly recommend you read it. This story is similar but quite different as to where it goes. Thanks for reading! ^_^


	3. Tears and Armtwisting

**Chapter 3: Tears and Blackmail**

A/N: There will be irregular updates for this story. I realized quickly while I was working on this that updating a chapter every 1 to 2 days is unfeasible and sets a precedent that is hard to keep up with. With that in mind, here's the next chapter.

A/N2: The story behind Harry going back in time will be explained, next chapter

Also, in regards to Harry's angsty self, he hasn't really talked to anyone about it so it has been stewing for about 3-4 centuries, and anything left for that long would undoubtedly fester. So that brings us to Harry/Arius, who only recently got a comrade-in-arms and yet he hasn't had a heart-to-heart with the guy, and so he still hasn't let go of the anger he has held inside for so long. I hope that clears up any confusion.

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The Unknown Captain: Tears and Blackmail

"Alright, now that that is out of the way I think I will be off."

Everyone stared at Arius as he promptly opened a portal back to the Seireitei. Of course, before he could go through it, someone else stepped through it, someone Rangiku thought she would never see again.

"Gin? Gin Ichimaru?" She said with tears in her eyes.

The perpetually smiling former captain turned his head toward her and the mocking smile turned soft, "Rangiku, it's good to see you."

Many people looked at him skeptically, _His eyes are closed, how can he see her?_

Rangiku stepped forward and, just when it seemed she was going to hug him, gave a solid right hook to the face.

While holding his head, Rangiku glared at him, tears streaming down her cheeks, "I held you in my arms back then, and watched as your life left you, and now you come back looking like it never happened and all you can say is it's good to see you?"

Gin simply stood up straight and held her as she cried into his chest. Meanwhile the rest of the Soul Reapers were at a loss for words. Here was their former enemy, the one who had helped kill Aizen even though he died before he could see it through, or so they thought.

But what he was wearing wasn't that different from what he wore when he was a member of the Gotei 13, wearing a shihakusho and a white coat over it, although it bore no mark on the back. In fact, the one who stood to the side had a Zanpakuto of his own that had an interesting hilt: the handle was sea-blue and the guard had a single spike at the top.

This was what drew Toshiro Hitsugaya's eyes as he surveyed the one that Gin had followed after, for he had appeared out of the man's own gate.

"Who are you?"

Arius looked down at the Shinigami and smiled, "My name is Arius Pelagios, and that is all you need to know. I doubt we will see each other again."

He turned his head toward Gin, "Come on, partner, we have things to do back in Rukon."

Gin looked up from the now sniffling Rangiku and shook his head, "What? You want to stay? Why?"

But the former traitor simply looked down at the shaking Shinigami in his arms, which elicited a groan from Arius, "Why did you have to go and fall in love? It makes everything more complicated."

"Love is not complicated if its with someone who holds your heart." These words of wisdom came from none other than Bill Weasley, who was holding hands with his wife, Fleur Weasley.

Arius looked over at the two with emotionless eyes, "Love is useless, it can't stop the ones you care about from dying, and it doesn't stop you from hurting. And before you go into what I am sure would be a well-rehearsed speech on the wonders of love, Dumbledore, know this, I have no use for something that couldn't keep my parents or Godfather from dying. And Gin, if you're serious about doing this, come find me in the usual place when you get back, I'm sure there will still be plenty for you to do."

And with that he walked into the gate and disappeared.

As the portal disappeared, Toshiro realized something, "Why was he even here in the first place? He doesn't seem the type to travel from the Soul Society to the Living World."

At that moment Dumbledore started to sweat. He knew that necromancy was illegal, and that was why the Stone of Resurrection was the only one of its kind. While according to legend it was made by Death itself, the reality of it was that the Peverell who was famed for owning it had gotten lonely and wanted to see his dead fiance again, so he tricked a Shinigami to help him make it. After the man committed suicide, any and all details regarding its construction were destroyed, although the stone had already been moved by the time they arrived on the scene.

There was no way he was going to use it and bring them all down on him, so he had looked for alternate methods of summoning the dead, which had lead him to the Anima Resurrectio ritual, or Soul Resurrection. It was classified as Dark Magic because he forcibly returned the spirit to the World of the Living and made them return to their former body. Although it seemed they had taken a few shortcuts to make it work. Shortcuts which, inevitably, made the whole thing moot as the spirit in question didn't want to come back in the first place!

Rukia narrowed her eyes at the old man. While she was still relatively young by Shinigami standards, she was easily one of the older individuals in the room, with Captain Hitsugaya and Rangiku being among that number as well. And with that age came the experience to see when someone was doing quick thinking, and she had a good idea why.

The Kuchiki was very familiar with summoning rituals, and each one that involved the dead were classified as a capital offense. And she was sure that the old man knew it too.

"You used the Anima Resurrectio ritual didn't you?" Dumbledore froze, and as good as sealed his fate. Rukia shook her head, "You do know that necromancy is a capital offense, right? It only takes one summoning of a spirit and the summoner's sentence is decided. And you know what will happen after that."

Those who had assisted in the ritual apparently didn't know that aspect of the procedure, and glared at the man responsible. If they died because he couldn't let Harry go then they would never forgive him.

"It was d-done with the best of intentions. It is for the g-greater good that Harry fight Voldemort and fulfill the p-prophecy." he managed to stutter out.

Toshiro face-palmed, "That is still not an excuse to summon the dead. There are channels you have to go through and even then you still have a snowballs chance in hell at getting it approved. What were you hoping to accomplish? Did you think the dead like being disturbed? They make their lives in the Soul Society and you bringing them here only disturbs it. You have a lot of nerve."

It was Gin to the rescue this time as he calmly stated, "I hardly think it matters at this point, Toshiro, as Arius has already left. I would wait until after the war is over before doing. And besides, if you still want to punish him, he'll most likely still be here so it won't be hard to grab him then, unless he's stupid enough to try and run."

Ichigo and Toshiro nodded along with the former Taicho's words, seeing the wisdom in waiting. Besides, it's not like he could hide forever, they being Soul Reapers and all made it so that the moment he died they would find him anyway.

With that out of the way, Toshiro turned back to face Dumbledore with a serious expression on his face, "Now that that's taken care of, let's get down to the matter at hand, shall we? You have information we need and you are going to give it to us. Refusing is not an option."

Molly opened her mouth to give her opinion of that statement when Arthur put his hand on her arm and shook his head.

Dumbledore looked at the diminutive captain with fearful eyes. It took a bit but he finally managed to choke out, "We'll help however we can."

Toshiro nodded, "Good, and you can also set us up as students at Hogwarts."

Silence enveloped the room.

It took a while, but eventually the response was something like this: "WHAAAAAAAT!"

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Tell me what you think!

Now, in the original version, I did a poll to see who Harry/Arius would end up with and it came out as Yoruichi. That might stay the same, but I am considering changing it. Obviously I won't choose anyone from the HP-verse and Rangiku is obviously out. I'll let you know soon who I pick.

Thanks for reading! ^_^


	4. A Story for the Ages

**Chapter 4: A Story for the Ages**

A/N: This chapter is a bit shorter than the others, but I couldn't figure a way to make it longer. The next one will more than make up for it I promise! Even during the rewriting process I couldn't work out how to lengthen it without making it ridiculous. All in all, this is more like a filler than a real chapter.

Oh, and for anyone who is wondering, Arius Pelagios does actually mean something. The former name I used was too bland for me, so I took this one, which if put together, means "Immortal of the Sea".

And a big thank you to everyone who has faved, followed and reviewed this story, it really means a lot to me.

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Last time on The Unknown Captain:

"Love is not complicated if its with someone who holds your heart." These words of wisdom came from none other than Bill Weasley, who was holding hands with his wife, Fleur Weasley.

Arius looked over at the two with emotionless eyes, "Love is useless, it can't stop the ones you care about from dying, and it doesn't stop you from hurting. And before you go into what I am sure would be a well-rehearsed speech on the wonders of love, Dumbledore, know this, I have no use for something that couldn't keep my parents or Godfather from dying. And Gin, if you're serious about doing this, come find me in the usual place when you get back, I'm sure there will still be plenty for you to do."

And with that he walked into the gate and disappeared.

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Now on with the story:

As Arius wandered through Rukongai, he couldn't help but feel like he was missing something, but whenever he thought about it it always felt like it was beyond his reach, just out of sight, and he hated that. He didn't like not knowing something about himself. He had changed a lot since coming to the Seireitei.

He had discovered upon arrival that all traces of his magic had disappeared, and that made him both happy and sad. Happy because the one thing that had brought him more suffering than anything else was finally gone, but sad that the only thing that thing that had brought him joy was gone as well. It was a contradiction, but he couldn't help what he was feeling.

He had long since cast aside all connection to the Living World, first to go being his name. He hated his fame, and he was quite pleased to see that upon dying his hair straightened out and lay flat a lot easier, making hiding his infamous scar a great deal easier. He also found he no longer needed glasses, and later on discovered that his memory had improved as well. He was also taller than he was before, and while he wasn't necessarily stronger, his muscles were more defined.

All in all, he was a prime male specimen and it didn't take long before he realized that he had been played all along. You see, when you die you go on as you were without any baggage beyond clothes, and so suddenly finding himself different from what he was before raised a lot of questions that only had one answer: Albus Dumbledore had intentionally weakened him to make him easy to control. And upon this realization, he figured that it was time to change, and so he quickly went about trading his clothes for less flashy ones, and gave away his glasses to someone who looked like they really needed it.

He had wandered about trying to find something to do, when he spotted a newspaper lying on the ground. But what caught his eye wasn't the headline, it was the date, 1625 A.D.. It seemed that he had gone back in time. It wasn't until he entered Shino Academy that he learned that the more pure a soul, the farther back in time they go upon arrival in the Soul Society, as they have been considered worthy of a chance to change what went wrong in their lives as they have been deemed good enough to not make things bad for those that wronged them.

Of course, none of them expected Harry, now Arius's, rage at finding out that the very man who he had looked up to for nearly 6 years had used and betrayed him far worse than Ron ever could. Or at least, that he knew of. In all honesty he wouldn't be surprised if Dumbledork had started all the way back when he was orphaned at the age of 1.

Arius had sworn then and there that he would do everything in his power to make the old fool pay. It wasn't long after this that he began to train. While he didn't have any magic left, he did have something else. What it was he didn't know, but he knew it was powerful. Several years later, while doing one of his rounds around the Eastern Rukon District, he was spotted by a Shinigami responsible for recruiting for the Shinigami Academy.

Upon noticing how high his Reiryoku was, he was quick to approach him and offer him a place to better hone his natural talents and become a Shinigami himself.

Of course, what no one knew, not even Harry himself, was that there was still a single block active on him that prevented him from understanding things completely, and so he found himself unable to learn any Kido and his swordsmanship sucked. It wasn't until long after he was kicked out, approximately 30 years, that he felt something change inside himself, and, upon looking deep inside himself like his former sensei taught him that he discovered the final remains of the spell used to inhibit him. When he saw it he was furious. He could have become a Shinigami if it hadn't been for that block, and now he had to train on his own if he wanted to get anywhere.

And you know what happened next (A/N: if not, refer to chapter 1).

So, while Arius was brooding over his past life he heard a cry for help that brought him back to the present. Growling, he quickly cast an illusion over his face to hide his features. The Kido in question was one of the only ones he was able to learn back at Shino Academy, seeing as it allowed one to alter one's appearance to allow one to work with a sense of anonymity, not that many bothered with it seeing the percentage of people able to see them.

He shunpoed in the direction of the scream and came to a halt before it. But what he saw wasn't what he was expecting.

"Well well well, what have we here, the Hero of Rukongai. I didn't think we would be graced by your presence for at least another hour. Not that it matters, for I, Kenpachi Zaraki, will finally know who is the strongest fighter."

* * *

Tell me what you think!

Thanks for reading! ^_^


	5. A Bloody Brawl and a Train Ride

**Chapter 5: A Bloody Brawl and A Train Ride**

This is my longest one yet! ^_^ This is basically a fighting chapter, as all that really happens is a battle between Kenpachi and Arius and then the one between Death Eaters and Death Gods. I had a lot of fun writing this one, I hope you'll have just as much fun reading it.

Edit: I changed his Zanpakuto, as the previous one was unstructured and not at all suitable for him. And on that note, I also have in the works a story with Harry as an Arrancar, but don't expect it to come out for a while, I am working on this and others at the moment.

Also as a sidenote as I was editing I managed to make the fight even longer (and bloodier) than it was before. Please, enjoy.

* * *

The Unknown Captain: A Bloody Brawl and a Train Ride

"Well well well, what have we here, the Hero of Rukongai. I didn't think I'd see you for at least another hour. Not that it matters, for I, Kenpachi Zaraki, will finally know who is the strongest fighter," the huge captain of Squad 11 called with a malicious grin on his face. It appeared that the cry for help that Arius heard was just a trick as the issuer of the sound was currently scrambling out of the line of fire.

Arius's eye twitched, "So, you came all the way out here just to fight me?"

Kenpachi's grin widened, "Indeed."

At that moment, a shock of pink hair appeared over his shoulder, "Kenny wants to play!"

When he saw the vice-captain badge on her arm, he face-palmed. He had heard that the lieutenant of Squad 11 was childlike in appearance, but he didn't know it was meant _literally_. "Are they letting anyone into the Gotei 13 these days?" He brought his hand down and turned around in the same movement, "I categorically refuse."

Zaraki's grin faded, "What? Are you coward? Afraid to face a real warrior?"

He shook his head, "Nothing of the sort, I just have no need to fight you. It would be a waste of time and I already know what the outcome would be. No matter how strong you are, without Bankai you could never hope to beat me, and you don't even know your Zanpakuto's name. You aren't worth the effort."

Now the Captain of Squad 11's eyes narrowed dangerously, "Is that your final answer?"

"It is."

"Then so be it." With that the man charged forward and drew his blade in one movement and thrust it in the middle of Arius's back... or it would have if he hadn't shunpoed out of the way. As for all Kenpachi's strength, he had not quite focused on any discipline beyond his sword, relying on his brute strength and overwhelming Reiatsu to overpower his opponents. Not that it had failed all that often, mind you, but when one over-specializes, it can make them easy to counter.

Arius looked over at the man with a bored expression on his face, "Is that all? If so, I have other things to deal with."

And turned around only for Kenpachi to repeat the maneuver again.

As he reappeared to the man's right, Arius glanced at him with a resigned expression, "I take it you'll keep attacking me until we fight?" Under the man's intense gaze he found his answer, and, sighing in exasperation, conceded, "Very well, you want a fight, now you've got one. This shouldn't take too long."

The two Shinigami stood opposite each other in a large open space inside the Squad 11 barracks. How did they get there so fast? Well, they shunpoed, or at least Arius did. Zaraki ran and jumped the entire way, so he had to wait a little while for him to show up. The reason for the location? It was the only place properly outfitted for such an endeavor, and Arius didn't want any civilians to wander into the conflict zone unwittingly.

Yachiru, the pink menace ( or demon, as she was called by her fellow Shinigami), was the referee, although it didn't look like she ever intended to interfere as she had a bag of popcorn in her lap as well as a box of chocolate that the rest of the division was eyeing warily.

"Begin!" she cried happily, hand already reaching for kernels.

Zaraki drew his sword and charged at Arius, who lazily drew his own and caught the strike with his blade halfway out of its sheath. He shook his head, "You'll have to try harder than that." It was not quite as easy as he was trying to make it seem, as for all his own power, Zaraki's physical prowess dwarfed them, so holding off the blade while keeping a calm appearance was difficult, and he was failing if the slight narrowing of his eyes and the tensing of his left arm as he locked swords with his opponent.

Fight-for-brains smiled menacingly, "Oh, this is only the warm-up. Just wait until the real action begins."

The Squad Captain then proceeded to push harder and slowly began to cut through Arius's Zanpakuto.

Raising an eyebrow, Arius kicked out with his left leg only for it to be caught by Kenpachi's.

"You'll have to try harder to beat with such amateurish moves."

"Who said I was going to beat you with that? That was just a diversion."

And indeed it was, for while his opponent was occupied preventing his kick from following through, Arius had broken the stalemate and freed his blade. And while the sword was damaged by the cut Zaraki's blade made, it was still strong enough to go on for a little longer, although if it took any hits around that spot that would change quickly.

Drawing his sword fully from its sheath, he held it in a neutral stance as he paused for a moment, each taking in the other. The blade in question was a Jin Tachi, a samurai-styled sword with an interesting guard. It showed a dragon circling around the sheath, the dragon being blue in stark contrast to the gold of the rest of the guard. The blade was straight, unlike a curving katana, and the handle curved upward toward the bottom.

And so they began their fight again in earnest, all the while Yachiru cheering on Kenny happy that he had found a new playmate.

The two went back and forth for another half-hour before Arius tired of playing games. He had cuts covering his hands and face and rips all over his clothing. Kenpachi wasn't much better off, although he seemed to avoid taking anything that could hinder him in the long run, only a small scratch here and there and his Shihakushō, which covered a lot less than a standard one, had only taken minor damage, with a few rips here and there that could be mended easily.

Jumping away from Kenpachi, he looked at his opponent with shadows in his eyes, "It seems I can no longer just use my sword anymore." By this time a large group had gathered to see the fight between a captain and the supposed Hero of Rukongai. They leaned forward, hoping to get a glimpse of the Zanpakuto that no one had ever seen. Sure, there were rumors, but that was all as no one still alive (or at least existing) in the Soul Society had ever seen it firsthand.

Arius brought his sword up at a vertical angle before him and cried, "Burst forth from below, Shinkai no Gōon!"

The blade started to turn into water before their eyes, even the handle turned into the liquid. _A Water-type Zanpakuto! The last one to have that type was Kaien Shiba!_ And indeed it was. But this one was far more devastating than the former Vice-captain of Squad 13.

The blade reforms, becoming a longsword with a blue blade and a silver edge along with a silver handle with blue accents along with a silver handguard and a silver wing-like crossguard (A/N: think Genesis' sword from Final Fantasy with a blue blade instead of red). Water gathered along the edge of the blade. When he felt there was enough, Arius brought the blade back and then threw it forward, calling out, "Mizu no Ha (Lit: Water Blade)!"

At that the gathered water leapt off the sword and flew towards Zaraki. Some of the bystanders laughed at the thought of a little water taking him down, although all laughter ceased when it turned into an elongated blade that charged him down at breakneck speeds. He was barely able to bring his blade up to block when he saw some of it break off and keep going, cutting across the face. He grinned, the fight was better than he had imagined. Now he just needed him to release his Bankai and he could see who was strongest fighter in the Seireitei. He didn't count Ichigo as he had already had his rematch and beat the snot out of him. And he refused to believe that Kurosaki lost the match on purpose (which everyone but him accepts as fact).

And it was then that Arius shunpoed across the field, blade held in an upward slashing position. Kenpachi, who was watching him, predicted his move, and swung his blade down, impacting with Zaraki's always released Zanpakuto, sending shock-waves outward that shook the stands around them. Ikkaku would have been foaming at the mouth if he was there. Of course, this would have been after getting out of the way as a couple benches collapsed.

They exchanged blows, neither making any headway, until Kenpachi finally got tired of the stalemate and removed his eye-patch, releasing his contained Reiatsu. He brought many in the stands to their knees, but Arius remained where he was, only a raised eyebrow to show he was paying attention, "Come on, Captain Zaraki, simply releasing more spiritual pressure isn't enough to impress me." Although the quantity of said pressure was mind-boggling considering his unwillingness to actually do anything with it beyond bursts of energy and bringing people to their knees. Oh and making his skin harder. Sure they were useful, but they weren't even the tip of the iceberg, or rather, not even the entirety of it.

And so, instead of answering with words, the giant of a man simply slashed his sword straight at Arius, creating a giant wave of energy many would have tried to avoid at all costs.

But Arius wasn't like others, oh no. For when he had died all his magic had been converted into Reiryoku, and he had had an impressive amount of magic when he died. And that wasn't even factoring in the extra boost he got from the soul shard that had tagged along as well, although it was sent to Hell in the end, seeing as it was part of the soul of a murderer.

He slashed the air before him and cried out, "Junsai!" (Lit: Water Shield) At which point a shield of dense water appears before him, which, while not stopping the attack, forced it to follow the barriers shape and went right went over it and blasted into the wall behind him. Although Arius did experience a great pressure on his ribs that he had not expected, eliciting a grunt that informed Kenpachi that his attack wasn't completely nullified.

But, with the limited success, Kenpachi decided to take a different approach, "So are you going to hide behind that shield all day or are you going to fight me like a man?"

Arius snorted, "This isn't a question of my masculinity, and besides, I don't need a shield to beat you, it was more of a test of sorts, seeing as I haven't really used these abilities in combat with anyone besides Gin."

At those words many wondered who he was referring to, seeing as the only Gin they knew of was dead by Aizen's hand, and he was sealed in the deepest level of their high-security prison.

The air around Arius began to grow heavy, as the man's emerald-green eyes shown with an otherworldly light, and he said, "I think it's time to end this little game. Bankai!"

Silence enveloped the arena. No one had expected him to have Bankai, well, no one except Zaraki, how he knew no one will ever know but that's not important right now. That he wasn't even a member of the Gotei 13 only spoke of phenomenal that feat was.

A roaring sound came to their ears as Arius became covered in a large amount of water, many clutching their ears and closing their eyes trying to shut out the pain that something that sounded close to Hyourinmaru but bigger blasting their eardrums.

When they looked again, Arius had gotten a wardrobe change.

He now sported a suit of armor that is coated with water emphasizing its element strongly. Two wings of water sprout out of the back as well, granting the ability of flight. The crowning piece is the four-horned helm on his head, proudly displaying which type of creature resided within his blade. His eyes glowing ominously beneath it.

With this, Zaraki grinned like a madman. He had initially thought that the guy's Bankai would be something more watery in nature, but this, well, this was right up his alley. He might not be overly fond of Hitsugaya's Zanpakuto, it not being melee-oriented, he respected the dragon residing within it, as they were creatures of pure power and power was one thing he could definitely respect.

With that the battle began again in earnest as Zaraki was eager to prove he could beat a Bankai even without having his own. He had done it before, but it had been a while, so he wanted to try his luck again.

Arius manipulated some water to create a copy of his Shikai, allowing for swordplay to continue. They exchanged blows at breakneck speeds, neither giving an inch. Nicks and gashes appeared along the gray-blue armor and cuts and scratches covered the upper torso of Kenpachi. although the damage on the armor was repairing itself while Zaraki's was not. After a half-hour of this, the dead Englishman decided to up the ante, gathering water in his throat and then releasing it, launching it at Kenpachi at lightning speed.

Zaraki launched an energy wave that cut through the water, causing it to break apart. The attack continued upwards and would have hit Arius if he had been there.

Up in the air, Arius concentrated his Reiatsu, covering his body with it (The Reiatsu has no defensive qualities in this state). After a sufficient amount has been gathered, he arched his body and thrust his arm forward, shouting "Jōshō Suirō!" (Lit: Rising Water Dragon), launching a huge dragon's head in the shape of Shinkai's head at the target, mouth opened wide. Upon impact, a semi-thick mist enshrouded his opponent and the area around for about 5 meters in each direction, making visibility difficult for him within, as any shape that would appear in the mist could be foe, or pieces of debris created in the aftermath of the technique. Those outside watching the mist found themselves unable to see within the mist due to its density.

The mist did not last long, however, as Kenpachi unleashed his Reiatsu and cleared it away, the power it held breaking down the structure of the watery mist.

Arius dove down and clashed swords with the hard-headed captain, making a crater upon impact, sending a small shockwave branching outward toward the stands once again, with more than 1 Shinigami puking due to vertigo.

When they retreated, Arius kept to the air. His wings began to glow briefly before they sliced forward launching two crescent-shaped strikes at his opponent.

Kenpachi laughed at this, and merely struck out with his blade, deflecting the blows.

It was after he had done this that he noticed that his opponent wasn't quite done yet. As Reiatsu gathered around him, he watched grimly as Kenpachi neutralized his attack. Then, thrusting out his blade multiple times, each time with the blade's tip pointing right at Zaraki, he called out, "Shinkai o Tenmetsu Burēdo." (Lit: Flashing Blades of Deep-Sea)

Nine copies of his blade appeared in front of Arius before they launched at the battle-monger, He tried to dodge them, remembering the blade that his Shikai sent at him, but they merely changed course, and soon enough the man was pinned to the wall of the enclosure, a sword pinning each hand and upper arm and 2 blades in each leg (1 for each thigh and calf) and the last one, while not sticking into a body part, was quite close to nicking his neck.

With all the blood that the man had lost, and with his apparent state of unconsciousness, Arius considered the match over. Although he did find the grin on the man's face slightly disturbing. So, sealing his Zanpakuto, he sheathed it, bowing in respect to the head of the 11th Division.

"I hope this answers your question, captain." And with that last remark, he left, intent on returning to the slums, but it appeared that fate had other things in store for him. He had just passed by the Barracks for Squad 8 when he heard it's spokesperson for the day.

"I hope you weren't planning on leaving anytime soon, new Captain of Squad 11."

He quickly turned around, hand already on his sword's hilt, when he saw an old man wearing a Shihakusho with a coat on his back, quickly going over the people that were that old and were captains, Arius was quick to deduce that this was Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto, captain of the First Division.

"And what the hell are you talking about?"

The old man chuckled, "I suppose you aren't familiar with the way that the captain of the Eleventh Division is chosen. In order for a new captain to be made, they must defeat the previous one and do it before several eyewitnesses. And you did it not only before most members of Squad 11, but several others as well. Congratulations, Arius Pelagios, you are now a captain of the Gotei 13."

* * *

Far away, in the place hidden from normal eyes, a group of Death Gods prepared to head off to their mission, which would take place at Hogwarts, as they were aware of a connection between it and Voldemort, or Tommy as Ichigo likes to call him.

Toshiro on the other hand was all to happy to call him Riddle-san, as it was one of the most common ways to address people in Japan, and would summarily drive the man to even greater heights of rage.

And so here they were, sitting in a compartment waiting for the train to leave Platform 9¾ while Ron Weasley moaned about Harry being a spoiled brat who couldn't die without finding a way to make himself better than him, sure he had worded it differently but whiners all carry the same tune. The trip to Hogwarts was sure to be interesting as there had been a tip-off that Death Eaters would attack the train, and also a rumor that they would have outside assistance. Needless to say, Ichigo was all too happy for the interruption and was anxiously tapping his foot waiting for their new enemies to appear.

Shortly after departing the station, Hermione appeared in the doorway to the crowded compartment, calling for Ron who was required to attend the Prefect meeting at the front of the train, much to the relief of everyone in the room who had gotten tired of his complaining.

As soon as they were gone, Renji looked over at the tiny captain and said, "So shortie, when do you think we'll be attacked?"

A tick mark appeared on Toshiro's forehead. It took both Ichigo and Matsumoto to calm him down, "You're lucky I can't kill you."

Renji snorted, "Yeah, lucky. Like you could anyway short-stuff."

This time, instead of going into a towering rage, the temperature simply dropped to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (A/N: sorry, I am not overly familiar with Celsius) and he said in an eerily calm voice, "You're right, but only because the paperwork isn't worth the effort."

Now it was the red-head's turn to have a tick mark on his forehead, "Why you!"

Ikkaku and Yumichika grabbed him holding in his seat, "Come on, Renji, you know what'll happen if you attack him."

With a huff he crossed his arms and glared at the window. Which turned out to be a good thing for right at that moment a large group of Death Eaters appeared and were getting ready to attack. A reason why they hadn't sensed them before was that apparently the intense concentration of magic on the train caused their soul pagers to not function properly, something that they hadn't expected, and so they had to wait until they got to Hogwarts to make them resistant to its effects on technology, something that had not taken all that long to learn, truth be told.

"Guys! We've got company!"

And so everyone left their gigai and soon the train itself and charged their opponents. Now, one thing to know about wizards and Shinigami is that, while they have magical abilities, there is a fail-safe in-case a Soul Reaper appears, and that is that there is a notice-me-not charm of sorts active on all Shinigami so even though they can be seen they won't because to the human eye they are invisible, mostly. Only those with special powers like Chad and Orihime can break through the charm's effects.

The Death Eaters were another story, however, as it seemed they weren't even effected by their presence, but the Hollows with them were, as they howled in rage and charged them with the dark wizards casting spells support.

Ichigo quickly brought up Zangetsu to block the spells because no released Zanpakuto can be destroyed by anything other than by another Shinigami or a human with special abilities different from that of magic. Of course that doesn't mean that he isn't affected either, as he was still pushed back by the force of the spells. Renji, seeing an opening, flew into the air and sliced the first Hollow's mask in half, destroying the hollow and sending it to Hueco Mundo.

With one Hollow down, only 4 remained, but that was still 4 too many as they were all bigger than the one Renji just killed.

The next smallest one was as tall as a two-story building and was ugly as hell. It had a metallic left arm ending in circle were five fingers were placed around it, presumably to make a drill if spun quickly. its right arm was what appeared to be a giant whip that ended in a hook. Beyond that it was exactly what a Hollow normally looks like.

Ichigo dashed forward and swung his blade at the monstrosity, but it was a wasted effort as the Hollow was quick to bring up its left arm and block the attack.

It then brought forward its right arm and brought it down at lightning speeds at him intent on burying the hook in Ichigo's back when Ikkaku appeared and cut the hook off, earning a cry of anguish and outrage from his opponent. And it was at that time that one of the remaining three decided to join in the fun, and brought its clawed arm down upon Ikkaku, only to find him missing and then its mask disintegrated as the Third Seat of Squad 11 cut it in half.

Ichigo, capitalizing on his friends success, then leapt up and brought his sword slamming down on the smaller Hollow, slicing through the metal appendage and destroying the mask in the process.

While Ichigo and Ikkaku were dealing with the first two, and the Death Eaters preoccupied with Toshiro, Yumichika and Rangiku, Rukia and Renji dealt with the smaller Hollows.

When the Hollow charged, Rukia released her Zanpakuto, "Dance, Sode no Shirayuki."

The blade turned white and a ribbon extended from the end.

She held the blade upside down and cries, "First Dance,Tsukishiro." The blade glowed and then she made a slashing motion when her target is in position. She then drew a circle with the tip of Sode no Shirayuki, the space within that circle and anything inside freezes. The circle not only freezes the ground but everything within the circle's influence including anything above it up in the air, creating an extending pillar of light that then freezes everything within in the circle.

The Hollow shrieked as its body was frozen, and upon being frozen solid, shattered, and was destroyed in the process.

Renji meanwhile faced down a slight-smaller Hollow that appeared to have the most gruesome features. Its right arm featured what appeared to be a giant axe, and its left held a halberd. Although where it got a weapon of that size will remain unknown. Its front was littered with faces, presumably of the souls it had consumed.

So, holding his sword before him, he ran his hand down its length and cried, "Howl, Zabimaru!"

The blade turned into its extendable form and he was quick to throw it at the giant hollow who tried to avoid it but was torn to shreds by the now-serrated blade.

With the Hollows defeated all that was left were the Death Eaters, and the three facing them had no trouble defeating them as they didn't have any way to block swords short of grabbing something and throwing it at them to slow them down. It was later discovered that Rabastan Lestrange was among the number of dead Death Eaters and Neville Longbottom was quite happy that one of the bastards who ruined his life got what he deserved. His body had been cut clean in two along with his head separated from his neck.

With the threat neutralized, the Shinigami got back on the train that had stopped because one of the student DE had threatened the driver. Of course Hermione, Neville, and a couple other former DA members were quick to take him down after Hermione saw the Death Eaters outside and organized a resistance.

With the Hogwarts Express safe again, the trip to the school resumed. But new dangers awaited the Soul Reapers and their allies. For while they had defeated the threat outside, one person had watched the entire thing and alerted his master to the new development. Things were going to be getting very interesting at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

* * *

Words to know:

Shinkai no Gōon: Roar of Deep-Sea

Okina Ageshio: Great Rising Tide

Mizu no Ha: Water Blade

Junsai: Water Shield

Jōshō Suirō: Rising Water Dragon

Shinkai o Tenmetsu Burēdo: Flashing Blades of Deep-Sea

I still haven't gone into everything Arius can do with that blade of his. That's right folks, he has a few more tricks up his sleeve.

Thanks for reading! ^_^


	6. A Case of Blackmail and A Sorting

**Chapter 6: A Case of Blackmail and A Sorting**

A/N: And here we are again. Hello all! I reworked this a tad, and added a bunch in. If you cared to compare this chapter with the original (although why you'd do that I have no idea) you would find this one is a fair amount longer. Please enjoy.

* * *

Last time on The Unknown Captain:

"I hope you weren't planning on leaving anytime soon, Captain of Squad 11."

He quickly turned around, hand already on his sword's hilt, when he saw an old man wearing a Shihakusho with a coat on his back, quickly going over the people that were that old and were captains, Arius was quick to deduce that this was Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto, captain of the First Division.

"And what the hell are you talking about?"

The old man chuckled, "I suppose you aren't familiar with the way that the captain of the Eleventh Division is chosen. In order for a new captain to be made, they must defeat the previous one and do it before several eyewitnesses. And you did it not only before most members of Squad 11, but several others as well. Congratulations, Arius Pelagios, you are now a captain of the Gotei 13."

* * *

Now back to the story.

The Unknown Captain: A Case of Blackmail and A Sorting

Arius stared at the bearded man, shocked into silence.

Yamamoto simply smiled at the younger man, "It is quite a surprise, I know, but it is the way the Division works, and you are now its head, although," he frowned slightly, "The fact that you have an element-type Zanpakuto will make things a bit strained with your subordinates, but seeing how long you fought without releasing your Zanpakuto certainly spoke in your favor, and your having Bankai already along with it being more physical in nature is a bonus as well, so I don't think you will have too much trouble down that route."

Arius' brow twitched, "Are you out of your goddamn mind? Why would I ever want to work with you?"

Genryusai chuckled, causing Arius to look at him quizzically, "What's so funny?"

At that he burst into outright laughter. When he had calmed down some, he looked at the man before him and smiled broadly, "I haven't heard someone turn down a captaincy in quite some time. It is rather refreshing, although I do believe that this time will turn out differently than last time."

"Oh, and why's that?"

"Because, if you refuse I will be forced to arrest you for wielding a weapon while not being a member of the Gotei 13, as well as aiding and abetting a fugitive, even if he was revealed to be on our side in the end. Now by accepting the Captaincy you could reinstate him as your Vice-captain and solve the problem then and there. unless of course you wish to make things difficult, at which point I will be forced to take both of you in and execute you. But what would happen to those of Rukongai without their Hero?" The captain-commander said his last words with his eyes narrowed and glinting dangerously.

Arius growled, he was not pleased with the strong-arming the old man was doing. He had kept the souls of Rukongai safe while the Shinigami fought Aizen and his Arrancar, but it seemed he had slipped up somewhere if he was so well known. Heck, even the now-apparently-former Kenpachi Zaraki knew about him, and he could tell the man didn't like to use his head. "And what's to stop me from running? After all, it's well known that you have a fire-type Zanpakuto, while mine is water. Who's to say I couldn't overpower you and get away?" He knew that was unlikely, if not impossible with the rumors that Yamamoto's Zanpakuto was the strongest of them all, regardless of the element match-up.

The ancient captain smirked, "If you were to try, I would burn you to a cinder. As I am sure you are aware, even fire can burn water if it's hot enough."

Pelagios glared, "That doesn't mean I couldn't get away. You are an old man after all. I'm not sure your old bones could keep up."

This was apparently the wrong thing to say, as the next moment he found himself hurtling down the corridor smashing into the wall at a fork in the path. Already weakened from the fight with Zaraki, he knew he didn't have the stamina or the energy to even attempt fighting the commander, so he quickly invoked his Bankai and took off into the air only to find the old man waiting for him. Or rather, the old man's foot. It collided with his helmeted face painfully, sending him rocketing towards the ground where he made a small crater.

He cursed silently as his Bankai faded away. It seemed he really didn't have a choice in the matter.

Sensing the younger man's surrender, Genryusai alighted upon the ground. "Excellent!" The tense atmosphere disappeared immediately, leaving behind sunny skies and a creepily smiling old man who was now leading Arius over to the 4th Division Barracks after taking him to the seamstress to get his shihakusho and captain's haori.

When he was outfitted, he was wearing the standard Shinigami uniform with a captain's haori trimmed in red-orange and the symbol of Squad 11 on his back with his scarf flowing behind him and his Zanpakuto in its normal place at his side. All in all, he looked like a reputable member of the Gotei 13. Plus, according to the seamstress, it brought out his eyes.

And so it was that Arius Pelagios, formerly Harry Potter, finally became a Shinigami.

As he entered the 4th Division, he felt a shiver go down his spine as he was escorted bodily before the captain of said division, Retsu Unohana . She was smiling, but for some reason he felt that smile wasn't so nice, and as he was lead away he saw some 4th Division members praying for him and others gathering flowers. He shuddered bodily at that. Unfortunately Captain Unohana saw it.

"Oh dear, have you caught a cold? I'll make sure to treat that right away along with your injuries." He did NOT feel reassured by that.

After several hours of tor... treatment, he was let go, white as a sheet and giving a silent vow to never get a reason to be sent back to her.

Captain Kuchiki was waiting for him, and a glimmer of pity could be seen in his eyes for a second before it disappeared, and he was lead to the meeting hall to be introduced to the other captains that were still in the Seireitei. It was during this meet-and-greet that Arius was faced with a dilemma far worse than he had anticipated.

"No, no absolutely not!"

"But everyone else did it!"

"So that means I should jump off a bridge because they did?"

"But you can fly."

*face-palm* "Not the point. But my answer is final, I will not take the title Kenpachi, the old captain can keep it."

"That is highly improper."

He quirked an eyebrow, "And why is that? I don't want to take the name, is it really that bad? So it has history behind it (Every captain of Squad 11 has been named Kenpachi!" Makizo Aramaki cried indignantly. As soon as they realized he was there they shunted him out the door.) just because I don't take it doesn't mean I don't appreciate that history, I just don't see the point in changing my name because I won a fight."

Byakuya sighed, "It was more than just a fight, you proved yourself to be the strongest fighter in the Gotei 13 by beating the former Kenpachi Zaraki and that victory earned you the name and title Kenpachi."

Arius looked at him blankly, "I just got pummeled by the old man, HOW am I considered the strongest after that? And why would I want to change my name? I like it just the way it is."

"..." His face went suspiciously blank for a moment, "He wouldn't be the Captain-Commander if he wasn't the strongest, so really the title goes to the second-strongest." Kuchiki blinked at him with an otherwise neutral expression, "And assuming the name Kenpachi is a time-honored tradition, and one that has not been broken for over a thousand years."

"Traditions are fine and all, but I am happy with my own name, thank you very much, and have no intent to change it anytime soon. So get over this obsession over a title that doesn't mean squat in a real fight and leave me be!"

This last statement earned him looks of respect. While the other members of the 11th Division didn't like that he wouldn't take the name Kenpachi, they could understand his reasoning, and would respect his decision.

After that encounter it was time to look over the roster and decide who got what seat, as with taking up the captaincy he booted Zaraki down and Yachiru would naturally follow him.

With the former captain still alive, he wanted to put him in the 3rd Seat and Yachiru in 4th, but Zaraki said no and asked to let Ikkaku, the current 3rd Seat, keep it and have him in fourth while Yachiru go into the 6th Seat, because he didn't want to move Yumichika from his position either.

Seeing as how the man knew the division better than him, (not knowing that Zaraki simply didn't want to listen to the two's whining by being displaced) he agreed and moved the former 4th Seat to 7th, and every subsequent one down one as well, until the former 12th was no longer seated, not that he minded, apparently, as he liked the loss of responsibility.

And so it was that a captains meeting was called.

Right when he had just gotten ready for bed.

"What do you mean I have to go to a meeting?"

"It-it's required for all captains to attend when the bell is rung."

The new captain glowered at the Shinigami and proceeded to put his clothes back on. He was tired, hadn't even had a bite to eat since breakfast, and he was tortured in that hellish woman's plain of hell for several hours. He needed his rest, dammit!

Upon arrival at the First Division Barracks, Arius was gently pushed into his position by one Captain Ukitake who smiled and said, "You'll know your place soon enough."

Now, when one normally says this they mean in the food chain, or pecking order, but here its meaning was quite literal, as it was referring to where he was supposed to stand.

Arius was glaring at everyone, although it should be noted that his eyes avoided Captain Unohana's like the plague.

Captain Yamamoto banged his cane on the floor, "Now that everyone is here, we can begin. As you all know, Captain Hitsugaya and Captain Kurosaki were both sent to the Living World to help Wizards of Great Britain take down the dark lord known as Voldemort, who has learned the secret of splitting souls and proceeded to do so 7 times. The fragments are called Horcrux by the Wizarding World. 2 of the soul fragments have already been destroyed at this time. And we know the general location of four while knowing exactly where the fifth is."

"And what is the fifth fragment's location?" Captain Kuchiki asked calmly.

A frown settled onto his face as he turned his head to look upon Arius, "It seems that more than just your scar was left behind when he was defeated all those years ago."

The new captain frowned as well, "What are you getting at? Are you honestly suggesting that he left one of these things in my scar?"

"That is exactly what I am suggesting, and it has been proven by Captain Kurotsuchi himself, that despite the fact you died it still remains inside your body. And despite the fact that we have no idea how to destroy them, as Dumbledore has not seen fit to tell us, and we have not had a case like this since I was a young Shinigami, we do not know how to remove it without completely destroying the vessel, which we are hesitant to do at this moment."

Arius quirked an eyebrow, "And why is that?"

At that Captain Ukitake kindly answered, "Because we are planning on sending you to the Living World to finish what you started 16 years ago."

A murderous look appeared on his face, "You have got to be out of your mind if you think I would willingly go back to that hellhole."

An uproar rose from the other captains at this insolent remark, but Yamamoto raised his hand and the hall went quiet, "I understand where you are coming from, but don't you think 300 years is enough time to get over what happened when you were a child?"

A growl actually sounded from his throat, "Not in the slightest."

The old captain sighed, "Very well, I see you leave me no choice but to bring in that partner of yours and try him before the Central 46. Unless of course you were to go, of course, then the entire thing could be forgotten about."

Shadows appeared over his eyes as he gave a hollow answer, "I'll pack my things and leave immediately."

The atmosphere lightened immediately, the old man clapped his hands enthusiastically, "Excellent!" Shunsui and Ukitake were disturbed by this, although Kurotsuchi just blinked and shrugged. He was worse than that on a good day. "Now as you will be returning to your old body, even if you die in it again you will still return here as it still possesses a soul, however small it may be. You will be returning to your old school, Hogwarts, where you will assist Captains Hitsugaya and Kurosaki tracking down the soul fragments and destroying them once and for all. And if you should meet him down there, tell your partner that upon the destruction of the first fragment, if he assists, he will be granted a full pardon and be free to operate in the Gotei 13 once again."

And with that the meeting adjourned, leaving the other captains with one question on their minds, _Who is_ _Arius_ _Pelagios_ _' partner?_

* * *

Back at Hogwarts, the sun had already set and the first years were being shepherded through the middle of the tables toward the stool where an ancient hat was situated.

And once the first years had stopped before it, its brim opened and it began to sing.

Ichigo and the others looked at each in wonder at the strange things wizards seem to have. When they had gone to Diagon Alley, they had been shocked to discover that they did indeed ride brooms. That had prompted a round of laughter from Ichigo and Renji who held each other up as tears formed in their eyes.

Back to the present, the first years were called up one at a time until only the Shinigami were left.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat to get the hall's attention, "As you can see, we still have a small group of students to Sort. What you do not know is that these are transfers from the Japanese Magical Academy who are also the first transfer students Hogwarts has had in over two-hundred years. And so, without further ado, we will Sort them and find out where they will go."

Renji was up first and the Hat took a moment before shouting, "Gryffindor!"

The red house cheered at their new member as he sat down in an area with plenty of open spaces, anticipating others coming to the house as well.

And he wasn't disappointed. Yumichika was sorted into Gryffindor shortly after and along with Ichigo and Ikkaku. Interestingly enough, Rangiku went to Hufflepuff.. With Toshiro and Rukia going to Ravenclaw. With the Sorting done, Dumbledore stood up and said, "Now before the feast begins I have a few words to say: Abercrombie Nomberry, Gitarre, Snorkack. Thank you."

And so, after his rather odd choice of words, the food appeared and both Ron and Ichigo drooled at the amount before digging in. Yumichika looked at the two disdainfully as he daintily picked at his food, doing his utmost not to spill any of it on his new robes, even though they made him look hideous.

Toshiro and Rukia ate at a more relaxed pace then the first pair but still a great deal faster than Yumichika. But, come on, everyone eats faster than him.

It had been decided the week before that Ichigo, Renji, Ikkaku and Yumichika would be 6th years with Rangiku being a 7th year, Rukia begrudgingly was a fourth year, which had been decided after a copious amount of yelling, and Toshiro would be a 2nd year, for the same reason Rukia had for being a 4th. It was already going to be tough selling him being even THAT old considering his childlike appearance. While being short might not be their fault, it was how things were, so they had to deal with it. Which they did, grudgingly.

Once the feast was over the students went to their houses and up to their dormitories and fell asleep, many already dreading the first day of classes the following day.

Meanwhile, a lone student was making his way to the Owlery to send off his latest report which was sure to recognition for his services to the dark lord, but what the note said will remain a mystery as by the time Filch arrived, he was already gone, message already sent.

* * *

Thanks for reading! ^_^

Edit: There was a song, but after reading it again, I realized it was a bit strange even for me, so I am taking it out, sorry for anyone wanting it or something similar here, but I just don't think I have it in me to make such a thing correctly.


	7. The Unknowable Known

**Chapter 7: The** **Unknowable Known**

A/N: I know this chapter is shorter than most of my previous ones, but I couldn't think of a way to make it longer, but the next one will be, and Dumbledore won't be so happy. Heehee

* * *

The Unknown Captain: The Unknowable Known

It didn't take long for Arius to get his things packed and ready to leave. While he wasn't excited about returning, he couldn't say that there weren't some things he didn't miss.

The other members of Squad 11 were roaming about aimlessly because they didn't have anything to do. There hadn't been any major Hollow attacks and the daily spars were getting boring. But all of that was about to change.

Before he left, Arius decided to make use of his new authority and called every member of the Eleventh Division to a mandatory meeting.

When they were all in attendance, he stood before them with his arms behind his back and looked them in the eyes, "Hello, for those of you who know me, hi, and for those who don't, I am your new captain. I have called this meeting because I have noticed a certain lack of enthusiasm among the ranks and decided to do something about it." A murmur rose among the fighters. "For those of you who don't know, I am, or rather was, known as the Hero of Rukongai," eyes bulged at the admission, "Yes, I know, it's a big shock. Anyways, I have something that will be sure to cure your boredom. I have arranged a shift that will rotate every other week where each group will patrol the Rukon districts and make sure they are safe. There will be four groups, and by the end of the year, everyone will have patrolled each district at least once."

The men began to talk amongst themselves, asking each other if it was a good idea, and it obviously was sketchy, seeing as they had never done it before.

"Now, what some of you are probably thinking is that this is only to keep the citizens safe from Hollows, but that is only part of the issue, seeing as Shinigami have never had a problem dealing with them in the past (disregarding Aizen's experiments) and are unlikely to start now. What you will be doing is protecting the citizens from thugs, bandits and mercenaries who prey on the innocent for no reason other then for their own profit. I expect there to be a report filed at the end of each week without fail. And I will make sure that they make it to me once filed by use of Hell Butterflies. Be wary, however, as there is a chance that owls might attack them."

At the confused looks he hastened to explain, "Owls are used for communication in the Wizarding World and while we have more efficient means of communication, they do not and have refused to advance their own technologies beyond that of steam-powered machines. Or at least, the British WW does. Everywhere else has made advances that are far beyond that of Mundane's." He paused, "Mundanes are humans without magical powers. ("Ah," was the reply from the crowd). He went on to explain how they were to make sure that they always works in pairs since even though they were strong there was always the chance that they could get ambushed and he didn't want them going into a situation without backup.

With that out of the way, he grabbed his things and opened the Senkaimon and walked through the paper doors to the Living World, and to where his body was stored.

* * *

By the time the Shinigami already stationed on Earth arrived at the Great Hall for breakfast, Ikkaku and Ichigo were already raring to go, much to the annoyance of the others.

"I can't understand how anyone can be so energetic in the morning! It defies belief and frankly makes me sick to my stomach," Toshiro said in response to their singing in the morning, which was really off-key. "Will you two shut up!"

And so it was with a giant headache that Toshiro and the others entered the Hall and went to their respective tables, albeit they were given a wide berth.

Breakfast was a loud affair, with Ichigo and Renji arguing about techniques rather loudly although fortunately it was in Japanese and scarfing food down at the same time, so their chewing could be heard across the hall. Thanks in part to their status as Shinigami, they were able to understand the natural language of any dead soul that they crossed paths with, and this included English, so they had no trouble understanding them. This is important when you realize that the translation spell that had been cast previously had long-since worn off.

When they got their schedules, Professor Flitwick had eyed the white-haired captain dubiously, wondering if he was really old enough to be a Second Year. Little did he know that Toshiro was old enough to be his father's father.

As the group left the hall and went to their respective classes, Rukia was approached by a certain blond-haired blue-eyed Ravenclaw female who had a dreamy look about her.

"Hello Ms. Soul Reaper." She also had the ability to metagame, although how she does this in a story we will never know.

Rukia gaped at the girl before her before trying to find a way out of the mess. The result was her laughing extremely hard and tears appearing in her eyes at the forced laughter, "I don't know about you, but I don't look anything like a 'reaper'. I don't have a scythe for one thing."

Luna cocked her head to the side, "But you aren't alive."

This prompted Rukia to grab the blond and drag her into the nearest empty classroom.

Upon closing the door, she rounded on the 6th year and asked a single question, "How do you know?"

Luna smiled dreamily at the adopted Kuchiki, "You have a large amount of Harglesnarkles around you, of course."

 _Harglesnarkles?_ Shaking her head, she thought about how she would have to deal with this when the answer was given to her, quite literally in fact. "Daddy says that whenever a Harglesnarkle is around that we need to carry a dirigible plum to ward them away. He also says that they don't like it when attention is brought to them, so we need to not mention them."

Rukia blinked, unsure what to make of that statement. And the blond opened the door and walked away, leaving her alone in the room. A few minutes later, they were given a warning that classes would be starting soon, and Rukia rushed to get to her Ancient Runes class. Thankfully she had it in the morning and not Defense Against the Dark Arts or Potions, like the Gryffindors, seeing as Severus Snape had been returned to his Potions class and some guy named Lupin was in charge of it. She could only hope that Toshiro was keeping a low profile, seeing as she couldn't imagine him being able to keep his cool considering the likelihood of being called "young man".

* * *

Meanwhile in Transfiguration, Hitsugaya sneezed, disrupting his spell and turning the beetle into not a button, but a dress shirt, and quite a stylish one at that, with a color of icy-blue and a dragon pattern going down the side. Professor McGonagall was shocked beyond belief at the accomplishment and gave Ravenclaw 20 points and told him he could keep it.

* * *

Please tell me what you think. And for the record, Luna's creatures are so strange that I wouldn't be surprised if she did think a Harglesnarkle existed, seeing as I have no idea what they look like myself.

Thanks for reading! ^_^


	8. Author's Note

Now I know what you're asking, why would he update without actually posting a chapter? Well, I got this humorous flame, from someone not even brave enough to use their account to post it, saying:

 _Guest: There is no change whatsoever from that s*** story you are trying to copy_

I say humorous because if the person had actually bothered to read it, s/he would have noticed that things ARE in fact different, and that, by way of it being a REWRITE, things are going to be the same as well. And honestly, s/he makes it seem like I'm plagiarizing someone else's work, which I assure you I am not. So please, if you're going to post a flame/critique, think, as if I find that you haven't even been paying attention to what's written, I will ignore it. Or, like here, I'll post it with the chapter updates and laugh at them. Either way, you won't like my response to them.

This is not to say don't give me critiques, but I don't appreciate ones that don't point out anything to actually FIX.


	9. For the Love of Goats

**Chapter 8: For the Love of Goats**

A/N: In the story Harry/Arius will be referred to as Harry by his fellow classmates and the Shinigami although in private he will force them to call him Arius. The reason they will do so in public is because his soul now answers to Arius, so sending mail to Harry would send an owl in circles. Hope that will clear any confusion.

And for anyone wondering, yes, this chapter takes place on the same day as the previous chapter.

Edit: This chapter was in fact extended, because after rereading it I figured that I did make some mistakes that I wish someone had pointed out that are rather obvious to me now. I hope you all enjoy.

* * *

The Unknown Captain: For the Love of Goats

By the time Arius returned to his body, it was already late in the day, but not late enough for dinner, as was soon to be discovered. Arius, was again in the land of the living, a contradiction that Mayuri would be more than happy to investigate, and probably was right now, although that did send shivers down his spine. Even though they had only met briefly, the mad scientist had easily left the impression of a man who was willing to do anything to do his experiments, even if they were on the living. He was lucky that the Captain-commander needed him otherwise Arius was sure that he would be on an operating table being dissected at that very moment.

It wasn't easy getting used to a smaller body, as he had grown a great deal in the Soul Society, but he managed. Also the fact that all the blocks that Dumbledore had placed on his body were still in effect. Also he was reaching around blindly for his glasses as they hadn't been on his face when he went back into it. Putting them on, he grumbled about how pathetic he looked with them on, and resolved to fix it.

Standing up, he wobbled for a bit before grabbing the table his body once lay on and stood tall. He wasn't going going to let a change in his equilibrium mess him up. With that out of way, now he only had to find Gin and he could get this show on the road, but that was easier said than done, for when Gin arrived in the Living World, he had not brought a Gigai with him, and so was wandering around as a spirit, or so he thought.

In reality, Gin had traveled all the way over to Japan and gotten a Gigai from Urahara and then proceeded back to England, although how he did it so fast is something not even Arius knows.

Upon returning, he had set up shop in Diagon Alley at the local bank, (and how he did _that_ is unknown as everyone who witnessed it obliviated it since their brains couldn't handle what they had seen). as a security guard. Of course, he still maintained his mocking smile, which creeped out everyone who entered Gringotts, especially those who actually looked at him a second time when leaving and noticed he was wearing the exact same smile, eyes closed and all. Needless to say no one even thought of doing anything.

What no one knew, however, beyond the Goblins and Gin, was that it was only a temporary position, as he wasn't planning on staying forever and they only needed him until they got their new array of wards and runes set up.

And so it was with great shock that upon entering said bank that he saw his partner in crime giving him the smile before it faded upon recognition.

A few minutes later saw the two standing off to the side with Gin cracking a joke for the first time that Arius had known him.

"You've shrunk. I know you said you were small before but this takes the cake!"

Arius was steaming almost literally at the pun and it took all of his willpower to not strangle him right there. So, taking a deep breath, looked Gin in his squinting eyes and said, "I am the new captain of Squad 11 and you are to be my Vice-Captain."

Gin looked at his companion of several years with troubled eyes, not that Arius could tell, and said, "Are you okay? You didn't hit your head on the way over here did you?"

A tick mark appeared on his forehead, and so took great pleasure in seeing Gin moaning in pain on the ground clutching his head that was now sporting a rather large bump. "I am quite sure, and you will be my Vice-Captain, there are no ifs, ands, or buts. Yamamoto was quite clear on the matter. So I want you ready to head out at a moments notice, okay partner?"

Gin simply nodded his head in agreement and the conversation ended. Not because it got awkward, mind you, but because Gin's employers were walking over and Arius didn't want to cause a scene. So Captain Pelagios walked up to the front of the building and asked to be taken to his vault so that he could withdraw some money.

"I will need your name and key."

Arius rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "As sad as it may be, I have never held my key in my hand whenever I have come here. But my name is," he gulped and steeled himself for the reaction he knew would come, "Harry Potter."

The entire bank went quiet. Goblins stopped stamping papers, people stopped walking, and Gin had a thoughtful expression on his face. The goblin they were talking to straightened his back, "I trust you know we'll need you to prove you are who you say you are, so," he pulled out an otherwise unremarkable bowl that, upon closer examination, was shining softly with magic, "I'll need you to pour some blood into here."

Shrugging his shoulders, the dead-but-not Harry Potter cut his hand and let the blood drip into the bowl. When it shined a peaceful silver the goblin paled. The teller looked thunderstruck as he gazed upon the Boy-Who-Lived-And-Died-Tragically. It wasn't long before the teller turned around and bellowed, "Hardhook, get me Chief Ragnok! He'll want to see this!"

There was a flurry of movement behind the counter and it wasn't long before the sound of gasps could be heard on the other side. A few seconds later a second head could be seen over the counter followed by a torso. He could only assume this was Ragnok.

The Head of the Goblin Nation stared at the used-to-be-dead (as far as they knew) boy before him with wide eyes. They knew he was dead the moment it happened, although it seemed he found a way to cheat death once again, although this time it was slightly more dramatic.

"M-Mr. Harry Potter, we weren't expecting to see you again since you-"

"Died, yes, I know. But that hardly matters now. What does is that I need money to buy things I need for school."

The head Goblin blinked, "School? But the train has already left and isn't due to return until Winter. How would you get there?"

Arius smiled mysteriously, "Oh, you leave that to me. In the meantime, however I _will_ be needing access to my vault. So if you wouldn't mind."

Ragnok nodded his head quickly. If he did this right, he could make a great profit as the Potter Vaults were sealed after the heir's death, meaning that the money stopped circulating and no one could touch it. It was strange that it happened, considering that normally when a line dies out that the money is returned to the Bank and used for things like repairs or upgrades on the building. If he was able to play his cards right, he could trick the 'young' lord that reopening the vault incurred a fee as it had been closed for a while. He smirked mentally, yes, that would work quite nicely, especially since the boy had never shown any indication of knowing his heritage. He of course blamed Dumbledore for that, but it was all to his benefit. And besides, it was fun to watch the old geezer rant and rave about how he was the child's Magical Guardian and that they were obligated to give him access to his vaults. Hah, as if they would be stupid enough to believe that. Magical Guardians are those that have been designated by the parents, and Harry's had been Sirius Black, who, while incarcerated, had not received a trial and therefore was not legally convicted so theoretically he could have sent in an order form and Gringotts would have been obligated to withdraw the required money for payment (hint hint). And now that Black was dead and Harry the head of the Black household, those vault's were his as well. The only reason that they hadn't gone to the Malfoy's was because they had been given a letter from Dumbledore saying that Harry wouldn't be attending the will reading; basically saying that he had detained the boy and made it so he couldn't come, meaning that the kid wasn't at fault so he still inherited.

Clearing his throat, Ragnok looked down at the formerly dead Potter and said, "Well, Mr. Potter, in order to get a more exact reading of you, I'll need you to give some blood again. If you'll follow me." He jumped down from the platform and walked through a set of doors behind the counter, which Arius followed him through moments later.

He walked up to a stone table that held a dagger with a handle covered in runes and a piece of paper. Arius looked questioningly at the little creature who figured out what he was asking.

"While the rest of Wizarding Europe is content to stay in the Dark Ages, we at Gringotts find that paper is far easier to come by and a great deal cheaper as well. Now, if you will just take the dagger on the table and cut your hand, we can use the blood to see if you're telling the truth." At the questioning glance, he added, "The blood will be put on the paper which will show your name as well as your magical parents' and grandparent's and so on and so forth. It is the genealogy test, as anyone could change their name to Harry Potter and try to get into your vault, not that people haven't tried," he muttered the last part irritably.

Nodding his understanding, he stepped forward and picked up the blade and cut his hand, watching the blood drop onto the paper before the wound healed itself. It seemed the dagger also had a healing rune engraved in the handle.

After a few seconds, his names (both Arius and Harry) appeared on the page as well as lines connecting to Lily and James Potter. It then went on to show Charlus and Dorea Potter nee Black and the rest of the Potter and Black lines, showing nothing that he wasn't expecting, that is, until it got to the founders of said lines. For the Potter's it was the Peverell's, an ancient house that had long since died out, if only in name since only one person still counted among the living was Voldemort (Arius wasn't because he was, well, still dead) through Cadmus Peverell and he (Arius) through Ignotus. The Black's, on the other hand, had a heritage they were probably unaware of as a whole, or just wanted to ignore: they were related to one Godric Gryffindor. _Huh, a line of Slytherin's related to the founding Gryffindor._

Ragnok was obviously shocked, as the Goblin Nation hadn't known that little tidbit (the Black's weren't big on trusting Magical Creatures, so it was no wonder they never took the test), but quickly shook it off. That was only going to put more money into circulation, and a larger fee. Hehehe.

When they arrived at the Goblin's office, Ragnok placed the magically extended piece of paper before them on his desk and sat down, while motioning for Arius to do the same. And now it was time for his grand scheme to come into play.

"As you are no doubt aware, your vault has been closed for several months because of your 'death', as well as the fact that you were unable to attend the reading of Sirius Black's Will, thanks to the meddling goat that doesn't seem to understand the meaning of the word no. I am tempted to grab a dictionary and shove it in his face while spelling it out for him."

Arius laughed at that, "I am glad to see not everyone is taken by him, it will make working with you so much easier."

Ragnok nodded his approval, "Indeed, and as you are also no doubt aware, it will also take some time to reopen the vaults in question because of the inactivity-"

"Now stop right there. I am well aware that there is no fee for reopening vaults, so that will not be incurred. However, I will have no problem paying you for doing some services for me."

The Head of the Goblin Nation, surprised at the display, wondered what services he could possibly provide the revived savior.

"I need help in bringing Albus Dumbledore to justice. I don't care what you have to do, but I want him to pay for what he's done to me. I know he sealed my parents' Will and did a lot of things that the 'Leader of the Light' certainly should not be doing, and as such I want him to pay for manipulating me and engineering my parents' and Sirius' deaths." He raised his hand to forestall any questions, "Now, while I am sure you are wondering how I would know such a thing and it would be simple to explain, I am not at liberty to say at this time. What I can say is that he had been made aware of a prophecy concerning me and the Dark Lord and sent my parents' into hiding under the Fidelius Charm, all the while knowing that Peter Pettigrew was Voldemort's spy."

The reason he knew this was that Peter had died during the Summer and Arius was fortunate enough to run across him. You see, he had been feeling guilty about killing his best friend and his wife and He-Whose-Name-Must-Be-Hyphenated doesn't like that emotion, so he killed him. Or rather, he had his silver hand do it. So before the rat was dragged off to hell for his betrayal of his friends, he told the whole story.

Ragnok looked thoughtful, "You know that if you don't give up your source it can't be validated, and therefore won't hold in court." He got a nod in reply, "Very well, I will see about getting the wheels moving, but you will need more than one credible source to bring the Goat-lover down."

Arius blinked, "Alright, I have to ask, what is it with him and goats?"

The bank director smiled maliciously, and far away a wizened old man had a shiver go down his spine, "While this wasn't made public, during a particularly alcohol-filled evening in his youth he came here to apply for a marriage contract to a goat that lived near his house. Although I suspect his brother had something to do with that due to how he was smirking the entire time Albus was trying to set it up."

Arius paused for a moment, taking it in, before bursting out laughing, (Far away, a certain long-bearded wizard felt that someone was finally appreciating a prank he had pulled. He blinked as he tried to think about which one it was. He wouldn't have to wait too long.) "Now that is one story I'll have to spread around, I'm sure the public would love that one."

The meeting went on with Arius and Ragnok outlining a plan on getting the necessary papers and proofs needed and how they wanted to have it delivered to the DMLE when they felt the time was right.

Walking out of Gringotts with a full purse and his need for revenge sated for the moment, Arius walked into Flourish and Blotts' and purchased all the books he would need for the school year. (Apparently, someone had left their letter lying about Diagon Alley, not that he was complaining, mind you.)

And so, a couple hours later, with his purse nearly empty and his shopping done, his eyes fixed, hair straightened, and blocks removed, along with a quick trip to Rita Skeeter with whom he retold the tale of Albus' "one true love", he shunpoed over to Number 12 Grimmauld Place and went inside. With Sirius' death, and Arius's unforeseen demise, the house had sealed itself from all intruders, whether they be Order members or Death Eaters, seeing as there was no Head of House and thus no owner, the spells that had been installed the day it was purchased along with the slew that had been added on over the years had kicked in, and kicked everyone else out, except Kreacher, since he was considered property and no one really knew how to ward against House Elves.

The sun was already dipping below the horizon by the time he was ready to leave for Hogwarts. He no longer had his wand, as at his death it had been lost in the lake, not that he needed it anymore. And so, after making sure Hedwig was secure (she had shown up shortly after he arrived at the Black home and proceeded to punish him for his long absence. She was only sated by a sizable amount of flattery and bacon.) and his books and everything else he needed, walked up to the fireplace and, grabbing a handful of Floo powder, declared, "Hogwarts, Kitchen!" and after stepping in the fire he was off.

Stepping out of the flames, he was greeted by the elves and asked them to take his things to a private room that only he could access. He wasn't going to sleep in the same room as Ron and Seamus again, not after they had a contest of who could fart the loudest. His nose still ached even after all these years at the memory of that night.

With his things taken care of, he straightened his robes and walked out of the room, cloak flowing behind him as though underwater (He's wearing the movie uniform). Striding up the moving staircases that all seemed to move where he needed them to be, he quickly made his way up the steps and arrived at the entrance to the Great Hall. If his calculations were correct, (and they hadn't been wrong in at least 100 years) they were eating right now. He smirked, he only hoped they were ready for what was to come. Now, while he could have just shunpoed to the door, it would have taken more energy then necessary and he wasn't going to walk in the Hall just to collapse from exhaustion.

So, wiping his face of emotions, he strode forward and pushed the twin doors open with a little help from his Reiatsu.

All talking stopped as the giant doors opened seemingly on their own. But it wasn't long before people started to take notice of the figure standing between them, or the fact that he looked strangely familiar.

He smiled mysteriously, obviously loving their confusion, "What? No hello for an old friend?"

At that moment a bolt of lightning cut across the sky behind him, and the sound of rain pounding on stone flooded the area, and a strong gust of wind burst through the Great Hall, and the hair around Arius's forehead flew up, revealing the scar that had made him famous. At the sight of the infamous bolt, people screamed, some in shock, some in fear, others in happiness at seeing their friend alive. The number that didn't either faint or look gobsmacked were the Shinigami (and a certain blond-haired witch in Slytherin) and wondered what happened that allowed him to return to the Living World.

It was as he went past the people at the end of the tables that people noticed that he had a sword at his side. He had picked it up from Gryffindor's vault. It seemed that Godric had taken a fancy to Japanese katanas at one point in his life. Sadly, he didn't have one similar to his Zanpakuto (with Jin Tachi's being relatively unknown outside of Japan), but he would make do.

Once at the front of Hall, he inclined his head toward Professors Flitwick and McGonagall, along with Professors Sprout, Sinistra, and Snape. He had nothing against Severus anymore, after all, he was big enough to let go of a petty grudge that should have been buried years ago, Dumbledore was an exception to that rule with all the crap he pulled into literally orchestrating his parents deaths and potentially his own.

He looked down at the Headmaster sitting regally in his chair and sneered, much to the shock of the others at the head table. "So we meet again, Dumbledore. You must be happy that you were able to get your wish and bring me back to life."

The moment those words left his lips, everyone who was behind him, and I do mean everyone, looked shocked that the famed leader of the light would resort to dark magic to bring back one man, even if he was the one destined to save them.

"You must be proud, Albus Dumbledore, but know this, I am aware of everything you have done to me and my family, and their blood is on _your_ hands, not Voldemort's. He was a victim of circumstances that were beyond his control, but completely in yours, as you were so eager to prove last year. Oh, and before you ask, yes, I will fight him, but only because I have been commanded to, but don't expect me to be your lapdog like before. And no, I will not be working with you, you have done enough damage in this war, and I won't stand to see the innocent die just because you were unwilling to part with important information. Oh wait, you already have, haven't you? I do recall Sirius Black dying because you wouldn't tell me what was my right to know in the first place! Good night, Albus Dumbledore, and pray we don't speak again, for I might just lose control and cut off your head."

And with that he turned around and, just before he walked out of the Hall, he turned around, his eyes sweeping across the heads of all the students, taking in the signatures of the Shinigami that had been posted there, and said with a malicious grin, "I hope you all read tomorrow's edition of the Daily Prophet, as it has the most unique story on the front page. I'm sure you'll all have a good time reading it." Arius's eyes glinted evilly as they fell upon Albus, "I'll just say that no goats were harmed in the making of this story." And with that he walked out, the twin doors closing behind him as he left. And as they came to rest, the silence that had gripped the large room shattered, and cries of anger and disbelief (and a fair amount of wonderment about what goats could possibly have to do with the news) bounced off the walls, bringing a smile to Arius's lips as he shunpoed to the room that held his possessions.

It was going to be a long night, and Dumbledore wasn't going to get a lick of sleep. He really hoped it wasn't the goat he was thinking of.

* * *

Please tell me what you think. I hope you liked it. And no flames. If you don't like what I'm doing, stop reading, it's that simple.

Thanks for reading! ^_^

Edit: I figured, with all the goat-related comments people have made in other stories, I'd make it a bit more literal. Hope you liked it!


	10. A Day for Condemning

A/N: After reviewing this chapter, it took a bit longer to clean it up then I would have liked, so I apologize for the delay. I hope you like it.

 **Chapter 9:** **A Day for Condemning**

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The Unknown Captain: A Day for Condemning

The new day brought new problems, and not just for Dumbledore. Arius, who had been going by said name for over three centuries, was now forced to use the one he had cast aside, and thus face the masses that he hadn't seen in the same amount of time (not that he was upset about not seeing them mind you). The whole experience was something he would much rather avoid, but one rarely gets their way in the larger scheme of things.

Waking up at half-past five, Arius immediately got into his morning routine, doing his ritual pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, weight lifting with books spells to be heavy and the butterfly. Now, Gin thought he was crazy doing all of those, especially in the numbers that he did. 400 pull-ups, 300 sit-ups, 500 push-ups, 250 jumping jacks, 15 minutes of pushing the books up and down in the air, another 15 doing the butterfly stretch. Now, he wasn't one to brag (coughLiarcough), but that was his warm-up.

After that he would practice his swordsmanship, whereby he would go through every kata he knew in a particular style that he had chosen the previous week. And of course he would wrap up by doing a jog, which in this case would be around the lake. In short, suicide for one Ronald Weasley who had been tasked to follow him to make sure he hadn't gone dark, not that Dumbledore didn't already think this, he just needed "proof" for everyone else, as they weren't likely to take his word for it in this case after the debacle with the necromancy ritual.

As he came to a stop at the end of his run, he turned around and promptly fell to his knees holding his gut as he laughed at the sight of the wheezing Weasley.

When he was able to talk without laughing again, he looked at the red-haired teen while wiping a tear from his eye from laughing so hard. He had passed the Weasley on his second lap, as Ron hadn't managed to even make it halfway around the lake. Further composing himself, he wiped away all remnants of laughing from his face and stared blankly at the backstabber, "What do you want, Weasley?" Ron shivered at the neutral voice, as even without emotion it still intimidated him.

"N-nothing, just out f-for a run, you know, good for the lungs and all." Sweet Merlin! He was rambling like Hermione!

Arius continued to stare at the child, "You actually expect me to believe that you came out here to exercise at the exact same time as me? When you have never done something like this before?"

Ron nodded hesitantly, "Y-yeah. I mean, come on, Harry! You can't expect me to stay out of shape forever, can you!" He was getting more confident the longer he went on. "After all, I have to keep in top shape for Quidditch!"

Arius stared at him blankly, "Ron, I made sure you were aware last year that if you didn't buck up in your studies I would ban you from the team."

The youngest Weasley male looked at him confusedly, "Well yeah, but you were just joking! I mean, we're best mates, Harry! You don't do that to best mates!" (Ron seemed to have momentarily[?] forgotten that _Harry_ wasn't the captain anymore)

Arius scowled at the repeated use of his former name, and it only deepened at Ron's bold, yet foolish, proclamation, "You really think we're mates?" at the red-head's exaggerated nod he glared at the brat, "You actually think we're still friends? I know everything! I know you stole money from my vault under the guise of needing more money for supplies while your mother took out an even larger chunk for her own personal uses! Mates don't do that! And don't get me started on what you took from my vaults via Dumbledore when he paid you with MY MONEY to spy on me! I don't know about you, but that excludes you from best mate status or anywhere near mate. You made your choice a long time ago, and it wasn't with your friend who stood by you all those years. No, it was to your obsession to have something that the rest of your family didn't and then shove it in my face whenever you got the chance! Like Lavender for instance! Did it ever cross your mind that I simply wasn't ready for a relationship?

"I doubt it, and even if it did, you wouldn't have cared. I know you left me to die back in Hogsmeade, and I never forget the faces of killers, Ronald Bilius Weasley, and you just as good killed me."

By this point Ron was shaking like a leaf and was gazing up with terror-filled eyes at Arius who was unconsciously releasing his spiritual pressure, which was so oppressive that it drew the attention of Toshiro and Ichigo who rushed outside to see what was going on only to see him terrorizing a student, albeit one of the rudest students they had ever met but a student nonetheless.

Toshiro, being the short one, was the first person to reach Arius, with Ichigo slowly making his way toward the new captain. Honestly he didn't care what Arius was doing as long as he kept that brat's trap shut. Plus he felt that the kid deserved it after learning that he was partly responsible for his now-comrade's original death. Although how Arius remembered that was a mystery to him, he just chalked it up to magic and moved on.

"What do you think you are doing!" The small captain shouted, "He's just a student! You have no right to attack him in this manner! I don't care if you are 50 years older than me, you will do it," Ron's eyes widened dramatically at that statement, "I am the senior captain here and the one in charge of this operation so do as I say now!"

Arius, blinking, turned to face Toshiro who was glaring at him and just stared at him for a second, before closing his eyes and waving in a very Gin-esque fashion. Hitsugaya face-palmed and Ichigo stared at him warily at the eerie familiarity of the gesture. In the meanwhile Arius's SP abated and Ron was able to breath easier, and summarily found he could move, along with having emptied his bladder, as evidenced by the wet spot on his trousers, and promptly ran back up to the castle shouting at the top of his lungs that "Potter's a demon!"

Shaking his head at the stupidity of his former friend, Arius began to make his way back as well when he felt a hand on his arm forcing him to stop and look down at the offending appendage, although he had to look further down considering who said-appendage belonged to.

Toshiro Hitsugaya was not having a good morning. First, his sleep was disturbed by the appearance of a Hell Butterfly and then it went on to tell him that Arius Pelagios, a relatively unknown entity, had defeated Kenpachi and was now the new captain of Squad 11. And if that wasn't enough it also told him that he was being assigned to his group to assist in defeating Voldemort. And then it told him the guy's alias, and it all went to hell in a handbasket. The guy that had appeared in a thunderstorm the previous evening and declared he was going to destroy Dumbledore... was his subordinate?

And to make matters worse, just after the butterfly disappeared, he felt a surge of Reiatsu from outside that was stronger than any he had ever felt before, besides Ichigo's and Captain-Commander Yamamoto of course. Yamamoto being obvious, Ichigo because he was a freak of nature. And now it seemed he had a buddy in monsterville.

Looking up at Arius, Toshiro growled out, "What the hell is your problem, Pelagios? You are a captain of the Gotei 13! Act like it! And in case you didn't realize it already, you aren't top dog around here, I am! And I don't appreciate you coming in and threatening the whole operation!"

Arius raised an eyebrow, "And just how am I jeopardizing the mission?"

Toshiro's forehead got a tick mark, "We need Dumbledore because he has information that we require! You can have him afterward if you want but not a moment before, am I understood?"

Arius shook his head sadly, "I'm afraid I can't do that."

"And why not?" the diminutive captain demanded, tick mark growing.

"Because as it just so happens very few people outside of Britain actually like him, and anyone that isn't a Newblood or Muggleborn as the medievalists around here call them as they are too new to society to know about all about his history or members of the "light-side" that are too suckered to realize that he does not shat flowers and no matter how much he might try to butter it up, he still uses Grindelwald's slogan "For the Greater Good". Shame he doesn't mean for ours though, cause I haven't seen anything good happen when he uses that line."

Some people in the crowd nodded at that. It was certainly true enough. He had used the line during the Chamber of Secrets incident a few years back when asked why he didn't do anything to find the perpetrator, but it was left to a second-year to solve the case and yet still somehow managed to make himself look good in the process.

"Besides, the Goblins were just waiting for an excuse to bring him down. He could have sneezed in their general area and they would have taken offense. And of course Rita Skeeter was all-too-pleased to sling mud at him after he let the fabled Boy-Who-Lived die while on a school outing that should have had better security after Voldemort's (cue shudders and a sizable number of screams) return had been officially verified.

And as for the brat that just ran away screaming his fear of me across the school grounds, he left me to die, I think scaring him into wetting himself was actually showing restraint, considering what I would really like to do, you should be proud of me, _senior captain,_ " he said mockingly. Sure he was taking his anger out on someone who had nothing to do with it, but right now he didn't particularly care.

The tick mark grew, "Whatever prejudices you have aside, you will respect me and my position in this operation, and I expect you to apologize to that young man. What he did is irrelevant right now and-"

"Wrong, what he did is very relevant, as he is part of the reason I died in the first place. Do you know how I died? I was killed by Death Eaters in a raid during a trip to Hogsmeade because they decided to have a bit of fun, and hey, the Boy-Who-Lived is here, let's kill him for our Lord and get a nice reward. And so in the fight for my life my friends deserted me. Ron ran the moment he saw there were more of them then us and the only answer I get is "Better you than me". What kind of friend does that? And you know what else? He even left Hermione stunned on the ground in his haste to get away. I'm sure he didn't tell her that when she woke up." As the story grew in brutality, a small crowd had appeared after hearing Ron running through the castle screaming, not many, due to the early hour, but it included members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, as they had just started practicing on the pitch, although it seemed that their former keeper was going to get a cold welcome from them. Of course, they were still slightly puzzled over how Harry was still walking out and about when he just said he did in fact die the previous year but set that aside for another time.

You see, without Harry and Hermione to help him, he slacked off to the extreme, and thought that his friendship with the Boy-Who-Lived would get him a permanent spot on the team. Well, he might have done passably well in the previous year, it had all gone downhill in the summer, due in part to the failed ritual and, again, his lack of motivation to actually practice. Not to mention his grades were abysmal.

"Ron left me to die and then he has the audacity to say that we're still friends? I don't think so! Don't expect me to apologize to someone who won't even confess to his own wrongdoings. You do know the proverb of the speck and the log, right? Good day Captain Hitsugaya, we will meet again." And with that he turned on his heel and walked back up to Hogwarts, the students parting to let him through.

The day only got worse from there.

Ichigo, in an attempt to figure out the new Shinigami took to following him around in what would have been sneaky fashion if he wasn't so obvious about it by running around in his Shinigami form with white cloak billowing behind him and cleaver on his back. Not to mention his bright orange hair that remained uncovered. Although, because Arius was in such a bad mood after the conversation, he did not notice him.

On top of that people kept calling him Harry, not that they knew his other name but that was beside the point. After that he had to eat breakfast while every pair of eyes in the Great Hall watched him. He decided to eat in the Kitchens from now on so he wouldn't have to deal with this again. Of course, the arrival of the mail put a stop to that as many found themselves either laughing or goggling and then laughing at the newspaper that had the image of a young Albus Dumbledore holding hands (and hoof) with a goat preparing to get married. It seemed the Daily Prophet had some friends with the Goblins.

Dumbledore was conspicuously absent for the rest of the day.

Once the meal was over he went to his first class which was NEWT-level Transfiguration, not that he had even participated in the exams last year but they felt he was good enough to get in. Unfortunately they didn't count on the fact that he hadn't used magic in over three centuries and thus was out of practice, although it didn't show because he was so calm and focused during the lessons, not that he was able to accomplish the tasks in the opening class, but hey, he tried. It wasn't like Kido was the same thing after all. Sure they are both classed as magic, but they have different sources and different ways to

Potions was a breeze in that he had been making his own food for such a long time and knew that adding things at particular times changed qualities of a meal as well as the ways to ensure the best flavor during the ingredient preparation, and so he made short work of the Blood Replenishing potion that Professor Slughorn assigned during class, earning a small vial of Felix Felicis, something he appeared to give out in the first class to the most promising brewer of the year, as after leaving the class the news was spread of his earning and many a glare was sent his way.

Hermione was upset because he didn't follow the instructions and Ron was wise in that he kept his mouth shut after the outburst this morning, not wanting to draw Arius's ire again. Fortunately for Arius, is that while he didn't follow the instructions, he wasn't following someone else's handwritten notes on the matter, thus saving himself from being attacked continuously, but that didn't stop the occasional dark look sent his way. Hermione never did take being outdone in classes well.

Herbology was a irritating in that none of the plants were willing to come anywhere near him, so with great reluctance Professor Sprout was forced to let Harry drop the class. It was likely due his nature as a soul reaper causing this, as plants are of life and his "aura" now radiates death.

Defense Against the Dark Arts, or as Arius liked to call it, Defense Against the Bat Lord, Arius made judicious use of his repertoire and fired a Shakkaho at him when called up for a demonstration of wand-less magic. Needless to say Snape didn't like that and took 30 points from Gryffindor because he didn't even have a wand. Shrugging it off, the class ended and he went to lunch, where he was mobbed by the now awake student populous who demanded to know where he had been all this time, to which he responded with a glare, picked up a sandwich, and shunpoed to an empty classroom where he finished his meal without interruption, not caring that he had left them even more determined to figure out what happened as they knew that you can't apparate within Hogwarts, well, everyone who had read Hogwarts, a History, did. So really only about 5 people.

When the time finally came for the day to end, Hitsugaya sent him a note, that had only one word written on it:

 _Hollows._

* * *

Please tell me what you think. I hope you liked it. And no flames. If you don't like what I'm doing, stop reading, it's that simple.

Thanks for reading! ^_^


	11. The Hollow Maker

**Chapter 10: The Hollow Maker**

A/N: I am still working on the pairing at this time, although I have a fair idea of who it'll be. I think you'll like it, but you'll have to wait and see. :)

A/N2:For anyone who read the original version, I freely admit that Arius' previous Zanpakuto was uninspired and had a lot of holes in it. I came up with the idea for it during a posting RPG several years ago when I really had no concept of what Bleach was. Since then I have greatly expanded my knowledge-base on the anime and like to think the new one is far superior to the old. I apologize for how awful it must have been to read about it being used as the abilities were also uninspired. Heck, when I made it it didn't even have a spirit. Yes, it was that bad. It was basically just a sword with what I thought at the time were cool abilities.

Disclaimer: I own nothing that you see here except for the plot and any original characters I might dream up as well as Arius'/Harry's Zanpakuto.

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The Unknown Captain: The Hollow Maker

When the time finally came for the day to end, Hitsugaya sent him a note, that had only one word written on it:

 _Hollows._

The moment Arius read the message, he knew it what he had to do. Shunpoing to his room, he popped out of his body and left it to fall on his bed.

But what he didn't see coming was that as soon as he left his body a black blob left it as well. He watched in fascination and horror as the darkness took the form of a Hollow, but it was markedly different. For starters, it was half the size of a regular one and its mask was half-formed as well. Even the hole in the center wasn't completely, well, hollow. Its arms were three-quarters as long as they should have been and any natural weapons it might have had were either broken, half-formed, or nonexistent. All in all, it was a damn ugly thing that was really only fodder for a Shinigami with even a month's worth of training.

Arius wasted no time slicing through the mask, sending the soul-fragment on its way to hell, as its gates had opened right in front of him although how it did so in the small enclosure he had no idea.

When the doorway to hell disappeared, he shunpoed outside the castle and looked at the darkness that was surrounding him, and for a moment there was nothing. But then, a ripple of Reiatsu ran through him, forcing him back, his head shot this way and that trying to discover the source of the pulse when suddenly a giant rip appeared before him, and then a Gillian-class Menos Grande stepped out of it. Now, while they weren't a threat to a captain-level Shinigami, they were still trouble in number. And it seemed that it had buddies, as two more portals appeared disgorging two more Gillians.

Arius drew his sword at the same time Toshiro and Ichigo appeared. They had told the others that they would deal with the disturbance.

Nodding his head toward his fellow Captains, they all advanced swords drawn upon the three only to have to jump out of the way as the three fired ceros at them, blasting the earth where they had been previously into the sky, where the three Shinigami now were. They each charged at a Menos Grande and quickly cut their masks to pieces, only to realize that the portals that had opened hadn't closed, and they disgorged three more Hollows, but they were of a different nature, and ones that all three Shinigami were familiar with. They were also of similar size to the infamous Hollow Grand Fisher.

While Arius hadn't participated in the fight against Aizen, he had fought against a minor Arrancar that had made its way into Western Rukon, defeating him after a brief exchange of blows with his Zanpakuto. And it appeared that some had survived the destruction of Aizen's army, and decided to join Voldemort, as he apparently had some kind of power over them. Although why these three weren't involved in the major fights was a mystery that would have to be solved later.

The three Arrancar looked over at their adversaries with hatred gleaming in thier eyes. They each drew their Zanpakutos and charged. The three captains met them blow for blow. The Hollows, while strong, however, were still no match for a Captain, and were pushed back.

And then they released their blades.

"Light the Heavens, Llamarada!"

"Beat them blue, Esterlino!"

"Strike them dead, Asesinato!"

The advanced Hollows grew, and became something out of nightmares.

The first one was 3 stories tall and glowed like a light bulb, destroying all shadows around him and igniting the nearby greenery. Its arms were twin flamethrowers and its chest looked like a furnace. It's head was actually the most and least frightening of all its features for one simple reason: while it had the appearance of crystal, situated inside it was a single glowing eye of impossible size that swiveled as it looked from one Shinigami to another, flames licking at its edges.

The second Arrancar was markedly different, and just as terrifying. It was actually taller than the one next to it at a towering 5 stories it was all muscle. In fact, it seemed to be all there was to it. Its fists were incredibly large and were nearly double the size of Ichigo's body (As opposed to Hitsugaya's [a shiver went down everyone's spines as Toshiro felt someone was slighting him]). Its body looked like it could shrug off physical attacks without breaking a sweat or taking a single scratch. Its legs were just like its arms, showing just the muscles and no skin was to be seen anywhere. It's head was even worse with its eyes having no skin surrounding it making it even more demonic in appearance than its origin would normally suggest.

The last but certainly not least, seemed even more dangerous than the other two. It was between the two in height, standing somewhere around 4 stories tall and seemed markedly more humanoid than the other two. And what set him apart even more was the fact that he still wielded a blade, two in fact, and that his body seemed to be covered in them, with spikes jutting out of his knees, elbows, and chest, even his head, and all of them sharp enough to cleave the Shinigami in two. In fact, where its eyes should be were two metal spikes, one for each socket. Arius was concerned that it might have the ability to fire them, but until the moment came, he wouldn't be able to tell for sure.

This fight was going to take everything they had.

Toshiro was the first to move into battle, releasing his Zanpakuto as he leapt forward.

"Sit upon the frozen heavens, Hyorinmaru!"

The blade extended and the atmosphere dropped several degrees.

Ichigo was next, striding forward, although his Zanpakuto was always released, so he just held his blade in front of him.

Arius was right behind Kurosaki, his blade already drawn as he held it before himself.

"Burst forth from below, Shinkai no Gōon!"

The blade turned into water that quickly reformed into its more elaborate Shikai state, the pearls on the hilt glinting ominously as the light of the fiery Arrancar reflected off the blue blade.

Ichigo and Toshiro, having never seen it before, were shocked that he had a water-type Zanpakuto, seeing as they had only seen one before and the owner had met a violent end at the hands of Aizen's experiment.

The two sides stared each other down for what seemed an eternity before the mobile furnace stomped forward to meet Hitsugaya's charge, the ground turning black wherever it stepped. It raised its arms and shot a stream of fire right at them, the attack so wide that it went at everyone, not just Toshiro, the fire coming at such high speeds that any normal person would be unable to dodge, let alone counter. But then again, Ichigo wasn't a normal person, now was he?

But then again, neither is Arius, and he was the one who reacted the fastest. His Zanpakuto blurred into action, immediately spitting out a wave of wave of water that extinguished the halted the fires advance and forced the Arrancar to jump to avoid the attack, although it was quickly made apparent that it's ability to jump was impaired as it only went up about 2 meters before the water hit it and it roared in pain, the fires of its lower body fairing poorly against the Reiatsu-saturated water. In its anger, it sent out another burst of flames that evaporated the water on contact due to greater intensity.

This time it was Toshiro was the one to attack, leaping into the air he swung his icy blade down and tore through the attack, and then went on to attack the Hollow itself, only for the spiked Arrancar to intercept it, the attack bouncing off its bladed body.

It was then that the muscled one charged forward and pounded its fist into the ground, causing an earthquake that would later be registered as 6.0 on the Richter Scale by some mundanes in Glasgow. The move easily caught them off guard, but not for long. Ichigo, it seemed, was tired of not doing anything and so decided to charge forward, swinging his overlarge meat cleaver above his head and straight through the muscled Arrancar's arm.

Roaring in pain, the creature began flailing its arm around with Ichigo's sword still attached and said Soul Reaper still holding on, as it tried to dislodge the metal implement from itself with little success until the spiked Arrancar decided enough was enough and simply cut off the arm at the spot Ichigo had cut, letting it and the carrot-top fall to the ground, and although the skinless one roared once again, it was with wide eyes that the Shinigami watched the arm regrow.

Ichigo, deciding he was tired of wasting time, leapt backward. Then, holding his blade before him, cried, "Bankai!" Smoke covered his body as the transformation took place. His outfit changed to an open black robe with bandages around his waste and his blade turned into a daito (Japanese long sword) with a black blade.

Raising it above his head, he gathered his spiritual energy within the blade and swung down, releasing it."Enhanced Getsuga Tensho!" The blast launched right at the flaming Arrancar, taking it by surprise, and slicing it in half, each side disintegrating as the fell apart.

The remaining two, seeing their comrades demise, became inflamed (no pun intended ), and charged at the three Shinigami, forgetting one very important thing: Captains always have more than one trick up their sleeve.

Arius, after seeing the two running at them, raised his sword horizontally before him and yelled, "Bankai!"

The blade disappeared as watery-gray armor formed around his body, the liquid wings forming on his back and horned helm covering his head. He let out a feral roar, startling his comrades once again, with Hyorinmaru giving an answering roar that no one but Toshiro could hear as it responded to it's fellow dragon-spirit's cry.

All that could be heard as it faded was something only Toshiro Ichigo could hear and just barely at that, "Mizu no Kōryū." Their eyes widened at how apt the name of his Bankai was, the horns and the roar now making sense (for Ichigo at least, Toshiro's Zanpakuto's behavior was too much of a giveaway for him not to figure it out).

Arius's green eyes glowed with an otherworldly light (again, no pun intended) as he gathered his Reiatsu around himself, the air around him growing thick with his presence as his eyes glowed brighter and brighter in the moonlight. The Muscle-bound Arrancar, not liking what it was seeing, decided that charging now would be a better idea than waiting for him to finish, and so with great lumbering steps across the now-torn-up lawn toward the floating captain of Squad 11. But by the time it got close enough to hit him, it was too late, as Arius was finished charging himself and rocketed his right fight forward, all the Reiatsu he had gathered following the movement and soon the watery head of a dragon could be seen barreling toward the now-close Hollow, shooting it backwards as a mist could be seen shrouding it's upper body.

Toshiro, seeing his fellow Captain's Bankai for the first time, had to say he was impressed - especially after seeing one of the abilities it has- and called out, "Bankai!" quickly so as to not be left behind.

Ice formed around him, creating wings on his back, claws on his feet and left arm, and a dragon head envelops his right hand up to the hilt of the blade.

Quickly moving into action, Toshiro charged toward the muscle-bound Hollow and when it tried to dodge, it found that it was slower then normal due to a discreet use of ice when it wasn't paying attention, and Toshiro was quickly upon the still-misted Arrancar. Trusting Ichigo and Arius to deal with the spiked one, and using the water from the mist, he had an easier time enveloping it in ice, making it an easy thing to simply pierce it and and watch it shatter to pieces.

The spiky one was all that was left, but he wasn't going down without a fight, and Arius had just the technique to use on it.

Drawing once again on his Reiatsu, which, as Ichigo and Toshiro didn't notice the first time, was actually black with green outline, reminding the Visored of another who also had that coloration, and though he still had mixed feelings about Ulquiorra he wondered what it meant for Arius. Some of the Reiatsu gathered into the form of his Shikai state, the pool in which he was drawing however seemed to keep growing, the air around him growing thick and the spiked Arrancar actually paused as it watched the display before it.

His blade was thrust forward at rapid-fire speeds, blade after blade materializing and launching at the last remaining Arrancar until 9 altogether were tearing through the air toward their intended target. When it finally responded after realizing that it was under attack, it was too late. The first blade tore broke its way through the spike in the Arrancar's mouth, although it somehow survived having a blade burst through the back of its head, the second sliced into its side and tore out itself out the Arrancar's back. The third blade went to the other side, mimicking its brethren's actions. The fourth blade rammed its way through its right leg, cutting one of the spikes in half as it did so, the fifth following suit on the left. The sixth, seventh and eighth blades each went at the chest, their points all ending up at the same spot, clearing the way for the ninth and final blade to pierce through the chest. Its eyes widened in shock as it felt its body torn apart, being able to do nothing as it reverted to spirit particles at an accelerating pace. As the last of its body turned to particles, Ichigo breathed a sigh of relief, and released his Bankai, returning his blade to his back as his outfit returned to its normal state.

It was as he was turning around that he noticed that Toshiro and Arius still had their Bankai active, although Toshiro's didn't have much longer and Arius seemed to be breathing deeply even though he hadn't taken a single hit.

Both their Zanpakuto were growling in their heads, actually allowing both Shinigami to have slightly extended times with their Bankai's as they tensed for an unseen foe. Arius actually took to sniffing the air and growling as a single scent met his enhanced nose.

What the three hadn't taken into account as they were fighting was that the portals that the Arrancar had come out of didn't close when they were emptied of their passengers, instead they were slowly drawing closer to one another to create an even bigger one. But what came out didn't appear to be a Hollow, or even a human-sized Arrancar for that matter, although it didn't bear much resemblance to humans either except for its humanoid frame, crimson red eyes peering out from beneath a black cowl illuminated by the glow of the moon and the portal behind him.

Ichigo and Toshiro, markedly less exhausted then their fellow, moved quickly to stand in front of him with their blades held before them, although Pelagios only growled with his teeth bared at the figure, knowing instantly who it was.

"Who are you and how did you summon those Hollows?" Captain Hitsugaya demanded in a strong voice.

The figure laughed harshly, a high and cold laugh that sent shivers down Ichigo's spine and raised the hair on the back of his neck. He might not know who it was, but that laugh was far too similar to Aizen's for him to let his guard down around him.

"Voldemort," he spat.

A moment passed, and they could only assume he was raising an eyebrow, or rather, Ichigo and Toshiro did, seeing as Arius knew that the man (if you could even call him that) had none.

"I see my reputation precedes me even in the afterlife. Well, no matter, it doesn't change anything. You will all die by my hand right now, so it matters not that you know my name. I can't have you ruining my plans for this school after all."

Raising his right hand, he revealed his wand that he flashed at the three of them snarling, "Avada Kedavra!"

The green jets of light blasted toward them, and, much to his amusement, they didn't even try to avoid it. _They must know resistance is futile,_ he sneered mentally.

As the smoke cleared, however, he was most displeased to see them still standing.

He frowned, "Why didn't it affect you?"

Ichigo laughed, but it was Toshiro who responded, "If you don't already know, you obviously aren't as well-informed as you like to think."

Voldemort scowled at the insult, his eyes burned a maliciously as he replied, "It seems I will have to revise my plans if you intend to interfere again. Consider yourself lucky, fools, for when next we meet, things will go much differently."

And with that he sped back toward the portal and, just before he went inside, he looked back at the armored figure standing with Ichigo and Toshiro and furrowed his brows, trying to figure out why he seemed so familiar, but shook his head and stepped inside the passage, the gateway dissipating shortly after.

Sighing in relief, they sheathed their swords and Toshiro's and Arius' Bankai finally released itself, leaving a winded Squad 10 and weakened Squad 11 Captain. Arius fell to his knees as the armor disappeared, his breath labored as the last ability he used took a lot out of him. Ichigo and Toshiro went over to Arius and picked him up, "Come on, Old Man, we need to get you inside for some shut-eye."

With an arm over each shoulder, he was taken back into Hogwarts and up to his room where he gave the password and they took him inside. They goggled at the sight before them. For Arius's room was exactly as he had left it, the mini-Hollow attack had made a mess of things even if it had been destroyed quickly. Shaking their heads, they took him over to his body and lowered him into it, and proceeded to place him under the sheets and tuck him in as he was too weak to move at the moment. Ichigo laughed as Arius asked for a good night kiss.

Once he was situated, Hitsugaya looked around the room surveying the damage.

"Looks like a tornado came through here."

Arius looked embarrassed at the apparent state of his chambers. "Sorry about that, a Hollow appeared in my room and it made a little mess before I could destroy it."

The two senior Captains' heads shot up and looked at him intently. It was Ichigo who asked, "How did it get in here? The wards should have prevented that."

He shook his head, "I'm not entire sure. All I can say is that as soon as I left my body it appeared as well. I can only assume it came out of my body as well. How, I don't know, but it's gone now so that's all that matters to me. Although the way it appeared was strange."

"How so?"

"It started out as a black blob before forming into a mini-Hollow thing that had less than half a mask and no natural defenses of any kind. Even its arms weren't fully formed."

Toshiro thought about that for a moment before he remembered something he read in a report. He snapped his fingers, "Of course, it was a Horcrux!"

The other two looked at him confused. "Huh?"

He looked at the two exasperated, "On the night that Arius's parents were killed and that mortal initially defeated, a portion of his soul broke off and attached itself to him. Unintentionally, I'm sure, but that's what happened. How it stayed inside his body after being dead for so long I don't know, but what I do know is that Arius is now inside his former body and that now it is basically a Gigai, as that Horcrux was the one thing keeping your body 'alive'. I'm not sure how this will work out in terms of eating and such, but there you have it."

Arius gaped at him for a moment before closing his mouth and frowning, "So, what you're saying is that Tommy basically created Hollows of himself and that I'm now officially dead. Wonderful. Now I can have a Death Day Party and invite all my dead friends to partake in the festivities."

Toshiro smacked him upside the head, "Alright, smart-ass, enough with the sarcasm. But yes, you're essentially correct. Now we know how we can destroy these things."

"I don't follow. How can we destroy them if they're inside things?" Ichigo was the one that said it this time.

Hitsugaya grinned, "Simple, we drag them out."

* * *

Translations:

Llamarada: Flare

Esterlino: Pound

Asesinato: Murder

Mizu no Kōryū: Steel Dragon of Water

Names of the abilities used by Arius in order of appearance:

Jōshō Suirō: Rising Water Dragon

Shinkai o Tenmetsu Burēdo: Flashing Blades of Deep-Sea

* * *

Sorry for the wait, I had put it aside due to some family matters and when I came back and reread it, I realized it needed even more of a touch-up then I given it previously. I also laughed as I realized I gave the Arrancar's weapons Japanese names instead of Spanish ones.

Please tell me what you think. I hope you liked it. And no flames. If you don't like what I'm doing, stop reading, it's that simple.

Thanks for reading! ^_^


	12. A Tale of Two Kittens

**Chapter 11:** **A Tale of Two Kittens**

* * *

Hi everyone!

My apologies for taking so long, I started a training program that does a graveyard shift, so my afternoons are primarily spent sleeping.

Seeing as I don't want to spoil the main pairing just yet, I'll leave it to your imagination for the moment to try and figure out who Harry/Arius will be with.

The known pairings as they stand are: Rangiku/Gin Ichigo/Orihime Rukia/Renji (Rukia/Renji is now going to appear. It will make more sense in the chapter. Thankfully there was actually chemistry between the two.)

Potential pairings: Hermione/? Luna/? Ikkaku/? Yumichika/? I am unsure what to do about these four, but I really wanted to have a pairing for Hermi at the very least. Tell me who you think these guys should be with or if you think they should stay solo. But give a good reason also! Mindless pairings are a no-no for me. Tell me in a review, as I won't be doing another poll for a while yet, if ever.

Warning: Mild laugh inducers

Enjoy! ^_^

* * *

The Unknown Captain: A Tale of Two Kittens

The next day was aggravating for Arius as he had to stay in bed to recover from the overexertion of his powers the previous night, and the house elves were quite adamant that he not move. He, of course, scoffed at them, until he fell flat on his face and found he couldn't move that is.

And so, stuck in his bedchamber, he took to reading up on what happened while he was dead. Looking at the newspaper in his hand, he couldn't help the scowl that appeared on his face. It seemed that Fudge, even though he had been fired, had managed to get his old position back after the murder of Minister Scrimgeour and the attempted murder of Minister-Hopeful Amelia Bones that resulted in her going into a magical coma with no signs of recovering any time soon. The man even had the nerve to reinstate Umbridge, despite the public outcry that occurred after it hit the press. They still remembered the blood quill used on their children it seemed. Although why they re-elected the man anyway is beyond him.

Snape had been awarded for killing Peter Pettigrew, who, it seemed, had survived all this time and was the actual perpetrator in the crime that got Sirius locked away with no trial. Arius was quite sure that the man was ordered to get rid of him by his true master and that he took great joy in ending the rat's life.

Not that it mattered to him, he had long since put aside that grudge. Having three-hundred years to brood on a subject will do that to a person. Now the reason he didn't get over Ron's betrayal as well as Dumbledore's, Mrs. Weasley's and Ginny's was because they were doing it the entire time and kept saying it was for the best and that he needed to go along with it. Needless to say he wasn't anymore.

Those three had done everything in their power to keep him under their thumb, and, he was ashamed to admit, they had succeeded for a time. But no more. No more would he bow to their wishes or believe their sugar-coated lies. He refused to lower himself to such a level again after all this time.

It wasn't until the next day that things began to get a little more... interesting, yes that's the word.

For when the doors to the Great Hall opened while everyone was having breakfast, in walked... a black cat?

But it seemed that Professor McGonagall had a different opinion on the matter. People were confused as to how the cat opened the door, but, when considering that it was a school of _magic_ , shrugged it off and went back to eating.

Minerva for some reason felt that there was something inherently wrong with the dark-furred feline, and her hackles were raised much like if she were in her Animagus form. Her eyes became slits, much to Snape's and Slughorn's shock. It was a lesser known ability among Animagus, that when you have unlocked your inner animal and can transform with ease, that you can make certain body parts resemble that of your animagus form. And one of the parts you can change are, of course, the eyes. Thankfully the butt cannot be changed otherwise the fair few who have the ability to turn into skunks would overrun the world. Even Professor Dumbledore fears what would happen if they had such an ability, which was why 700 years ago every single child born to a wizard was forced to be put through a ritual that made such changes impossible. A rather ingenious idea set forth by William Wallace of all people. It seemed he was a rather accomplished battlemage who was tired of facing off against the Skunk mages and everyone else who had faced them agreed. They were few in number, true, but what they lacked in bodies they made up for with smell.

Back to the Great Hall, the esteemed professor leapt onto the staff table transforming as she did so, scattering her food as she jumped. She ran down the length of the hall and stopped in front of the cat who seemed to be holding back a laugh. But of course everyone knows cats can't laugh.

But with McGonagall pulling her transformation, she drew all eyes onto herself and the cat before her.

She began yowling angrily at the black feline for a little while before the cat released the laugh it had been holding in.

"Hahahahaha!"

The hall was stunned into silence at the sound of the surprisingly deep voice that issued from the intruder.

"That has got to be the best joke I've heard in a long time! Thanks for that. But seriously, just change back, it'll make talking easier wouldn't you agree?"

Minerva was actually stunned out of her feline form as her concentration was shattered. Dumbledore's glasses slipped off his nose and clattered onto the table, cracking as they did so. Snape's reaction was probably the most amusing, as his mouth was dropped so low a fly actually flew into it, whereupon he actually started choking and when he passed out the fly left the greasy-haired man's throat buzzing loudly as it did so.

If one could speak fly this is what they would have heard:

"That man's throat was so greasy I wonder how he gets anything down it! *Buzz buzz* I mean really! The guy's poop is probably greasy! And I swore never to try greasy stuff again after that redneck in America decided to see what would happen if he poured bacon grease on his! I guess it's Ireland next."

Meanwhile, while looking at the cat that could talk, Muggleborns were reminded of a certain feline from a television show that worked with a bottle-cap collector and a female with a ridiculous amount of red hair.

The feline looked up at the old witch and smirked, "How nice to see you as a human. But seriously, I didn't come to chat with you. Toshiro!" 'he' barked, "Get your skinny little ass over here, now!"

Mumbling about short jokes and stupid catwomen, he stood up as directed and walked over sulkily, and stared down at the creature with a look that promised pain if they persisted with the height comments.

"I'm here, Shihoin, now what do you want?"

"This place is too open, so unless you want me to do _it_ and and make everyone pass out from bloodloss we will have to relocate to a more secluded setting."

And with that they left the dining hall and walked into an unused classroom that likely hadn't seen use in centuries given that spiderwebs covered _everything_.

Clearing a table of the stuff with a wave of his hand, he sat down in a chair that he forgot to clean as well and heard a distant *crunch* once he was situated. Shihoin cackled at the look on the small captain's face.

Laughing hard, the black cat was suddenly surrounded by a cloud of smoke, which, upon dispelling, revealed a naked slender and dark-skinned woman of average height with golden-colored eyes and long purple hair that stretched down her back. (A/N: taken from Bleach Wikia)

Toshiro, having seen it before and not wishing to look foolish with blood dripping down his nose, turned his body away so as to not tempt fate. He quickly pulled off his outer robe, re-sized it and handed it to her so she could have something to cover herself with. Once she was, he turned around and groaned, because she had left the top undone slightly revealing the tops of her breasts.

She giggled perversely at his unease, "Oh, Toshi, you really need to lighten up. Otherwise you'll get wrinkles in your old age."

A vein ticked on his forehead, "Who are you calling old, you old hag?"

Shihoin's face darkened and suddenly Hitsugaya wished he hadn't said that. After all, if there was one thing to be said about talking with a female Shinigami it was don't bring up their age if you wanted to live to see tomorrow.

Backtracking quickly, he said in his most flattering voice, (which he never used before so it really only made her want to laugh) "And you look absolutely beautiful despite that!" He was sweating internally as he hoped she wouldn't kill him for bringing up the tabooed subject around the temperamental former Captain of the Second Division.

When she simply smiled, he knew he was free and clear, as only her regular regular smiles boded trouble.

She looked at Toshiro closely, a frown appearing on her face, "You know, the only reason I am even here is because Kisuke told me he was getting strange readings from England, and tracked it here. But now that I am, I can't narrow in on it. It's almost like it just disappeared entirely overnight. Do you know what would have caused such a thing?"

The old/young Shinigami started to sweat. He had a pretty good idea what she was talking about. It had to have been Arius before the Horcrux was removed two nights ago and he had a pretty good idea what she would do if she found him. Unfortunately for Toshiro, while he was trying to think of a way to get her to leave without appearing anxious, the former commander of the Onmitsukido was watching him closely. So closely in fact, that when he finally came up with something he found himself staring right into her eyes.

Giving a high-pitched shriek, he leapt backwards into the table, his eyes wide. "What's wrong with you?"

She gave an evil chuckle, "Many things, but that's not the point. You were trying to get rid of me (he sputtered his denials which she ignored) and thought you could pull one over this poor women and not expect me to see right through it? How stupid do you think I am? Don't answer that," she added when she saw his mouth open to no doubt give a biting answer.

He sighed, "I guess I have no choice ("Darn right you don't," she said smirking) so I'll tell you." He took a deep breath and dove in, knowing full well what her reaction would be. "My new subordinate had a soul fragment attached to his forehead since his birth and ever since he was returned to his body his Spiritual Pressure increased dramatically. It wasn't until two nights ago that, upon leaving his body, he discovered his little passenger and destroyed it as when he left his body it followed, seeing as it was anchored to his soul."

She looked at him quizzically for a moment before bursting into full-on laughter. It wasn't until she caught sight of his face that she knew he wasn't joking, however ridiculous the story may have seemed.

"Hm, that is quite the tale, but I haven't known you to lie about things like this so I suppose I will have to take your word for it." She noticed he sighed in relief. "Now, where is this 'Arius'? I haven't met him before, and I am pretty sure I would know about someone that powerful."

Hitsugaya shifted nervously, "Well... You see... The thing is..." before he could even get close to finishing the door burst open to reveal the very man they had been talking about. And he looked right peeved.

"Captain Hitsugaya, I expected better from you. I don't care if you know who it is, you don't walk away with it without a proper escort. You never know if it could be a spy or an assassin taking a friend's form." It was at that moment that he noticed the other occupant in the room, and her state of dress, or rather, lack of. He peered at her warily, doing all he could to avoid staring at her chest, "As much as I admire you for running off to meet with naked women, Hitsugaya, this is very unprofessional." Toshiro's forehead grew a tick as realized what his fellow captain was saying.

Yoruichi grinned widely, and, swinging her hips in a slightly hypnotic fashion, sauntered up to the Shinigami and ran her hand down his arm. He tried to hold it in, but a light dusting of pink appeared on his cheeks as shivers went down his spine.

"Hello stud, my name's Yoruichi Shihoin, but _you_ can call me Yoru." Needless to say she was cackling madly inside at the emotions she could see in the new captain's eyes.

Stuttering, he quickly pulled his arm away and made a good-sized gap between the two. When he managed to regain control of himself, he coughed into his hand and said in as serious a voice as he could muster, "Very well, Ms. Shihoin (she visibly pouted at this, and Arius gulped mentally at the sight) as it seems you now have knowledge that you shouldn't have, seeing as I know clearance wasn't granted for such a thing," he said that last part with a glare at his tiny superior who only sighed in response.

"If you must know, Pelagios, Yoruichi has been granted a pass that allows her to help in any mission she deems fit, regardless of whether or not others want her there." He looked crossly at the dark-skinned rebel who merely shrugged.

"The big boys in charge decided that since I would have done it anyway that they would just make it official." When she saw the probing look that Arius was sending her she smiled innocently and fluttered her eyelashes at him, which had him shuddering and taking a nervous step backwards. At which point she noticed the look Toshiro was sending her where she chuckled, "Okay, I _might_ have asked them to give me one. ("Might? More like nagged." He couldn't say anything else as he had a fist rammed into his skull) Ignoring that, they gave me it and now I am basically a freelance agent. Ain't that great, sweetie?"

After viciously suppressing another shudder, he looked her straight in the eye and said, "Be that as it may, you aren't free to do as you wish, we have an already established chain of command and I won't have you subvert it for your own ends. Are we clear, _Ms. Shihoin_?"

The room was getting hot as they stared each other down. Hitsugaya, deciding that he didn't want to get stuck between the two, left quietly, closing the door behind him, although neither noticed.

Arius looked her angrily in the eye as she did the same, although neither were aware of the others' thoughts, which were as thus:

 _By Kami this lady has seriously big boobs! I mean, come on! I've only seen knockers this big on Orihime. And I can attribute that to a lack of mental faculties. After all, that mass had to go somewhere cause it_ clearly _wasn't upstairs. And when will she put on some clothes? That robe isn't covering anywhere near enough._

 _This guy is going to be a goldmine of laughs. He might come across as serious but that comment earlier proves he at least has a sense of humor. I'll have so much_ fun _playing with him._

The glint that appeared in her eyes scared Arius deeply, and it showed in his eyes and his body as he took a step backward, "What are you thinking about?" he asked nervously.

Light reflected off her eyes and she let out a disturbing laugh that sounded like she was queen of the world. She walked forward with a speed he didn't expect and she kissed his cheek, resulting in a light blush on his cheeks once more, and whispered in his ear, "You'll find out soon enough, stud."

And with that she was gone to who knows where, and just in time, as Hermione and Neville burst into the room at the same time and saw him standing alone, Hermione was the one who asked, "Harry, who were you talking to in here? We heard raised voices."

Turning around, he looked at the pair coldly, sending shivers down their spines at the harshness it held, "What happened in here was of a confidential nature, and I expect that anything that was said in here stays in here, am I clear?"

At their fast nods, he nodded also and left the room, leaving the two to wonder, _What happened that got him so flustered?_

* * *

Well, I finally sat down and finished the tweaking of this chapter. And yes, even if the edited areas were small, it was still necessary due to me changing Harry's pairing. And yes, I did just turn Yoruichi into a troll, but then again, she was one in the series too. :)

Don't worry, there will be more (cat)fights between McGonagall and Yoruichi in the future. Most likely real ones, as this one ended in a burst of laughter.

Please tell me what you think. I hope you liked it. And no flames. If you don't like what I'm doing, stop reading, it's that simple.

Thanks for reading and a Merry Christmas to all! ^_^


	13. Not an update

Hello all, I know I've been gone a while, but I can explain! I've been working on a new fic, and I'm 15 chapters and over 62k words in so far. I won't post any of it til I'm done or nearly there as I fear if I do it now I'll start procrastinating as I've done with my current stories. When it's done I will do my best to update the stories I have already published, but I warn you that I've also had a second story on top of the other one already started as well, although I've been working on it longer it's far slower going. It'll pick up soon as I can get it past a certain part in the setup.

For those wanting a hint, the first story is a Future Diary fic with a Male Yuno and a female Yuki. They are the only genderswapped characters in this fic.

For the second story it's a Harry Potter/Girls Bravo crossover featuring a Lisa/Harry pairing. It takes place at the end of the Goblet of Fire after Harry is sent back to Durzkaban.


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